THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 

GIFT  OF 

Mrs.   Frank  A.  Miller 


BY  THE   SAME  AUTHOR 


The  Effect  of  the  War  of  1812  Upon  the  Consolidation 
of  the  Union — Johns  Hopkins  University  Press, 
1887—30  pp. 

True  and  False  Democracy— Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
1915  (First  Edition,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1907) 
— xii+m  pp. 

The  American  as  He  Is — Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1915 
(First  Edition,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1908) — x  + 
97  PP- 

Philosophy — Columbia  University  Press,  1911 — vii4- 
51  PP- 

Why  Should  We  Change  Our  Form  of  Govern- 
ment?— Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1912 — xv  + 
159  PP- 

\|The   International   Mind — Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
*         1913 — x  +  121  pp. 

The  Meaning  of  Education — Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
1915 — xiii  +  385  pp. 


A   World    in    Ferment — Charles    Scribner's   Sons, 
1918 — viii  +  254  pp. 


IS  AMERICA  WORTH 
SAVING? 

ADDRESSES  ON  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 
AND  PARTY  POLICIES 


IS  AMERICA  WORTH 
SAVING? 

/ 
ADDRESSES  ON  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 

AND  PARTY  POLICIES 


BY 
NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 

PRESIDENT   OF   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY 
MEMBER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  ARTS  AND  LETTERS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1920 


COPYRIGHT,  I9*°»  BY 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
Published  March,  1920 


TO  ALL  THOSE  AMERICANS  WHO  HAVE  CLEAR 
KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  ON  WHICH 
THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IS 
BUILT,  AND  WHO  HAVE  FAITH  IN  THOSE  IDEALS 
OF  CIVIL  AND  POLITICAL  LIBERTY  WHICH 
THE  FATHERS  CONCEIVED  AND  WHICH  TRUE 
AMERICANS  AIM  TO  CHERISH  AND  TO  FOLLOW 


CONTENTS 


PACK 


INTRODUCTION ix 

ON  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 

I.    Is  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING  ? i 

II.    THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY   ....  27 

III.  A  PROGRAMME  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  41 

IV.  THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 71 

V.    THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 95 

VI.    THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 115 

VII.    A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 123 

VIII.    AMERICAN  OPINION  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  13 1 

IX.    ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE 143 

ON   PARTY   POLICIES 

X.    WHAT  Is  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 151 

XL    ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 183 

XII.     PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  AND  AFTER-PEACE  .   .  195 

XIII.    THE    REPUBLICAN     PARTY,    ITS     PRESENT 

DUTY  AND  OPPORTUNITY 219 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

ON  PUBLIC  OCCASIONS 

PAGE 

XIV.     MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 251 

XV.    THE  MAKING  OF  A  WRITTEN  CONSTITUTION  277 

XVI.    ALEXANDER  HAMILTON,  NATION-BUILDER    .  285 

XVII.     THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,  AMERICAN    .       .   .  315 

XVIII.    THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND    ....  323 

XIX.    FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 331 

ON  EDUCATION 

XX.    Is  AMERICAN  HIGHER  EDUCATION  IMPROV- 
ING?    343 

XXI.    THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION 355 

XXII.    EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 367 

INDEX 391 


INTRODUCTION 

These  addresses  have  a  common  theme  and  a  single 
purpose.  That  theme  is  an  exposition  and  interpreta- 
tion of  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  the 
American  government  and  American  civil  society  are 
built.  That  purpose  is  to  make  these  principles  more 
familiar  to  a  generation  that  is  quite  apt  to  overlook 
them,  and  to  enlist  in  their  support  and  defense  those 
who  may  be  tempted  to  listen  to  the  invitations  of 
some  among  us  who  are  either  openly  or  covertly  wag- 
ing war  on  American  principles  of  government  and 
of  social  and  industrial  life.  The  Fathers  would  have 
been  amazed  at  the  notion  that  within  a  century  and 
a  half  there  would  arise  in  America  those  who  would 
find  it  easy  and  convenient  either  to  deny  or  to  at- 
tempt to  explain  away  the  underlying  moral  and  polit- 
ical principles  upon  which  America  is  based.  To  the 
Fathers,  as  to  those  who  understand  these  principles, 
they  were  quite  as  clear  and  as  certain  as  the  multi- 
plication table  itself.  Their  application  will,  of  course, 
alter  with  the  changing  years;  but  the  principles  them- 
selves do  not  and  can  not  alter  unless  civilization  is 
to  revert  to  the  chaos  out  of  which  it  came. 

Every  American,  young  or  old,  should  be  familiar 
with  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  should 

iz 


x  INTRODUCTION 

learn  by  heart  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  He  should  also,  so  soon  as  his  age  and 
maturity  will  permit,  study  the  Federalist,  which  is 
the  very  Bible  of  our  American  form  of  government. 
He  should  know  accurately  the  contents  of  Washing- 
ton's Farewell  Address,  and  he  should  be  able  to  re- 
cite from  memory  Lincoln's  Address  at  Gettysburg 
and  his  Second  Inaugural. 

There  have  been  many  and  familiar  formulations 
of  underlying  American  principles.  Perhaps  none  is 
better  or  more  compact  than  that  contained  in  the 
first  section  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  State  of  Ohio,  which  reads : 

"All  men  are  by  nature  free  and  independent,  and 
have  certain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  those 
of  enjoying  and  defending  life  and  liberty,  acquiring, 
possessing,  and  protecting  property,  and  seeking  and 
obtaining  happiness  and  safety." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  rights  are  not  derived 
from  the  consent  of  society  and  are  not  the  grant  of 
any  government.  They  are  natural  and  inalienable. 
Their  roots  are  to  be  found  in  human  personality,  and 
their  basis  is  therefore  a  moral  one.  What  American 
civilization  is  striving  to  do  is  to  give  moral  persons 
full  opportunity  for  their  own  most  complete  develop- 
ment and  expression.  For  this  fundamental  reason 
America  cannot  tolerate  the  notion  of  fixed  or  definite 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

economic  classes,  that  have  conflicting  interests.  To 
that  notion  it  opposes  the  ideal  of  one  big  union  of 
men  and  women  whose  groupings,  however  important 
or  however  continuous,  are  wholly  subordinate  to 
their  equality  in  respect  to  opportunity  and  in  obe- 
dience to  law. 

Moreover,  it  is  American  doctrine  that  property 
is  an  essential  element  of  liberty.  The  fruits  of  a  man's 
own  labor  whether  manual  or  mental  are  his  own,  to 
hold  and  to  dispose  of  as  he  may  see  fit,  subject  only 
to  the  equal  right  of  every  other  man  to  do  the  same. 
This  is  America's  answer  to  all  fantastic  schemes  of 
communism  that  would  limit  or  destroy  private 
property  because  of  the  inequalities  that  naturally 
and  necessarily  exist  between  individuals.  No  form 
of  communism  is  consonant  with  American  principles 
or  with  an  ethical  system  that  recognizes  personality 
as  its  corner-stone. 

It  is  American  doctrine,  sustained  by  uniform  Amer- 
ican experience,  that  the  best  results  are  obtained  for 
society  as  a  whole  when  individuals  are  given  large 
opportunity  for  self-expression,  for  initiative,  and 
for  inventiveness,  and  when  they  are  trained  and  taught 
to  use  their  individual  powers  in  the  service  of  their 
nation  and  of  their  kind.  In  other  words,  social  ser- 
vice as  a  result  of  individual  competence  and  individual 
conviction  is  truly  American,  while  social  service  as 
a  result  of  compulsion  or  of  restraint  upon  individual 
capacity  is  un-American. 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

American  principles  and  their  application  present 
themselves  from  many  points  of  view,  and  a  number 
of  these  are  discussed  in  the  following  pages.  These 
principles  may  be  illustrated  by  experience  and  by 
the  facts  of  their  practical  application.  They  may 
be  illuminated  by  history,  and  by  reference  to  the  con- 
ditions out  of  which  they  came.  They  may  be  urged, 
and  their  application  in  particular  cases  suggested, 
as  the  duty  and  the  opportunity  of  a  political  party. 
They  may  be  made  familiar  by  reference  to  the  life- 
history  of  some  of  their  great  exemplars,  and  they  may 
be  insisted  upon  as  the  special  objects  of  education 
and  instruction  in  the  schools. 

A  very  real  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  quick  ac- 
ceptance of  these  fundamental  principles  as  the  one 
key  to  the  solution  of  our  present-day  political,  eco- 
nomic and  social  problems,  is  their  extreme  simplicity. 
To  some  minds  it  seems  quite  impossible  that  the  cure 
for  the  diseases  from  which  we  now  suffer  can  possibly 
be  so  matter-of-fact  and  so  near  at  hand.  A  genera- 
tion that  has  been  addicted  to  the  use  of  political  and 
economic  patent-medicines  of  every  kind,  each  of  which 
was  to  be  a  panacea,  finds  it  hard  to  accept  the  advice 
that  all  we  need  to  protect  our  national  health  is  to 
take  regular  exercise  in  the  open  air  of  sound  and  well- 
tested  principle.  Yet  this  is  the  fact. 

The  addresses  here  brought  together  were  originally 
delivered  in  many  different  parts  of  the  United  States. 
If  a  reading  and  discussion  of  them  shall  advance  in 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

any  degree  a  more  complete  understanding  of  the 
meaning  of  America,  and  a  fuller  devotion  to  its  ideals, 
they  will  have  done  their  work. 

NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 
IN  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 
February  22,  1920 


I 

IS  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING? 
A  REPUBLIC  OR  A  SOCIALIST  AUTOCRACY? 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Commercial  Club, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  April  19,  1919 


IS  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING? 
A   REPUBLIC  OR  A   SOCIALIST  AUTOCRACY? 

We  are  living  in  the  greatest  days  that  the  modern 
world  has  seen.  Our  customary  habits  of  thought  and 
our  ordinary  personal  and  local  interests  have  been 
pushed  into  the  background  by  great  events  that  have 
justly  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  entire  civilized 
world.  Old  forms  of  government  that  have  existed 
for  fifteen  hundred  years  have  tumbled  down  in  ruins 
before  our  eyes.  Ruling  dynasties  which  traced  back 
their  origin  to  Charlemagne  have  been  driven  from  the 
places  of  power  and  authority  that  they  have  occupied 
for  centuries.  New  nations  are  being  born  in  our  very 
presence,  and  peoples  who  cannot  remember  the  time 
when  they  have  not  been  held  in  bondage  by  an  alien 
military  power  are  standing  erect  and  making  ready 
to  march  forward  to  take  their  independent  place  in 
the  family  of  free  nations.  There  is  turbulence  not 
only  in  the  world  of  events,  but  in  the  world  of  ideas. 
Loud  and  angry  voices  are  raised  on  every  hand, 
urging  the  overthrow  of  the  foundations  of  society  and 
of  the  marvellous  civilization  which  it  has  taken  three 
thousand  years  to  build.  Destruction  is  the  order  of 
the  day.  Crude  thinking  accompanies  unconsidered 
and  hysterical  action.  Force,  either  military,  eco- 

3 


4  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

nomic,  or  political,  and  not  reasonableness  or  justice, 
is  everywhere  appealed  to  as  the  arbiter  of  differences. 
It  is  probable  that  the  world  is  now  further  removed 
from  peace  and  order  than  it  was  on  November  n 
last  when  hostilities  ceased.  In  this  orgy  of  crooked 
thinking  and  false  use  of  language,  words  are  twisted 
from  their  accustomed  meanings  and  are  used  to  mis- 
lead the  public  through  being  given  wrong  .significa- 
tions. It  is  the  fashion  to  describe  a  Doctrinaire  as 
an  Idealist;  to  call  a  Liberal  a  Tory;  and  to  steal  the 
splendid  term  Liberal  to  cover  the  nakedness  of  the 
Revolutionist.  It  is  high  time  to  attempt  to  dissipate 
the  fog  in  which  we  are  living  and  to  get  back  to  first 
principles  and  to  straight  thinking  along  the  lines  of 
hard  and  practical  common  sense  and  human  experi- 
ence. 

Nothing  in  the  whole  history  of  these  last  momen- 
tous years  can  have  made  more  direct  and  more  touch- 
ing appeal  to  the  imagination  of  an  American  than 
what  happened  a  few  months  ago  at  Independence 
Hall  in  Philadelphia.  In  that  simple  and  dignified 
room  where  the  Continental  Congress  met,  where 
George  Washington  was  chosen  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Continental  army,  and  where  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  were  adopted, 
the  accredited  representatives  of  no  fewer  than  twelve 
of  the  oppressed  and  submerged  nationalities  of  the 
earth  assembled  to  make  their  own  solemn  declaration 
of  common  aims.  In  the  very  room  in  which  the 
American  nation  was  born  these  new  nations  of  to- 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  5 

morrow  made  the  public  profession  of  faith  which  for- 
ever links  their  fortunes  and  their  hopes  with  our  own, 
and  which  testifies  that  their  nations  and  ours  rest 
upon  one  and  the  same  indestructible  foundation  of 
everlasting  principle.  Where  better  than  in  the  sono- 
rous words  of  Thomas  Jefferson  can  be  found  an  inter- 
pretation of  that  happening: 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident;  that  all  men  are  created 
equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  in- 
alienable Rights;  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  Happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  Governments 
are  instituted  among  Men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed. 

Can  we  not  imagine  the  spirits  of  Washington  and 
Franklin,  of  Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  of  Madison  and 
Adams,  of  Morris  and  Pinckney  and  the  rest,  hovering 
over  that  company  of  men  from  distant  parts  of  Europe 
and  of  Asia  who  had  come  together  to  light  their  na- 
tional fires  at  the  altar  of  American  liberty  which  our 
fathers  had  so  nobly  builded  ?  Where  in  all  history  is 
there  a  more  significant  or  a  more  appealing  picture 
than  that  ? 

What  is  really  happening  round  about  us  is  the  full 
accomplishment  of  the  American  Revolution.  The 
ideals  which  guided  the  building  of  the  United  States 
and  the  making  over  of  the  older  civilizations  of  Great 
Britain  and  of  France  are  the  principles  which  we  have 
just  now  been  defending  in  arms  against  the  full  force 
and  power  of  military  autocracy  and  imperialism,  and 


6  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

which  have  given  the  breath  oflife  to  these  new  nations 
of  the  earth.  There  never  has  been  a  time  when 
Americans  could  be  so  rightfully  proud,  not  only  of 
their  accomplishment  on  the  field  of  battle  and  in  the 
organization  of  national  effort,  but  of  their  example  in 
the  making  of  free  government. 

And  yet  it  is  at  this  very  moment,  when  our  pride 
and  satisfaction  in  America  and  its  history  are  at  the 
highest,  that  destructive  and  reactionary  forces  are 
actively  at  work  to  turn  our  representative  republic 
into  a  Socialist  autocracy,  to  destroy  liberty  and 
equality  of  opportunity,  and  to  paralyze  the  greatest 
force  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  for  the  promotion 
of  the  happiness,  the  satisfaction,  and  the  full  develop- 
ment of  free  men  and  free  women.  What  we  have 
defended  against  German  aggression  and  lust  of  con- 
quest we  must  now  band  together  to  protect  against 
those  more  insidious  and  no  less  powerful  enemies  who 
would  undermine  the  foundations  on  which  our  Ameri- 
can freedom  rests.  It  would  indeed  be  a  cynical  con- 
clusion of  this  war  if  we  who  have  helped  so  power- 
fully to  defeat  the  German  armies  on  the  field  of  battle 
should  surrender  in  any  degree  to  the  ideas  that  had 
taken  possession  of  the  German  mind  and  that  led  the 
German  nation  into  its  mad  war  against  the  free  world. 

The  corner-stone  of  American  government  and  of 
American  life  is  the  civil  liberty  of  the  individual  citi- 
zen. The  essentials  of  that  civil  liberty  are  pro- 
claimed in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  de- 
fined in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Ours 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  7 

is  not  a  government  of  absolute  or  plenary  power  be- 
fore whose  exercise  the  individual  must  bow  his  head 
in  humble  acquiescence.  Our  government  is,  on  the 
contrary,  one  of  clearly  defined  and  specifically  desig- 
nated powers,  and  the  Constitution  itself  provides  that 
powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Con- 
stitution nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States  are  re- 
served to  the  States  respectively  or  to  the  people. 
This  means  that  those  powers  which  the  people  them- 
selves have  not  seen  fit  definitely  to  grant  either  to 
the  national  or  to  the  State  government  are  reserved 
to  the  people  to  be  exercised  as  they  may  individually 
see  fit.  More  than  this,  there  are  many  things  which 
the  government  is  specifically  prevented  from  doing, 
and  the  powers  of  the  courts  are  sufficient  to  protect 
even  the  humblest  individual  against  the  invasion  of 
his  rights  and  liberties  by  any  government,  whether 
of  state  or  nation,  however  powerful  or  however  pop- 
ular. We  do  not  derive  our  civil  liberty  or  our  right 
to  do  business  from  government;  we  who  were  in  pos- 
session of  civil  liberty  and  the  right  to  do  business 
have  instituted  a  government  to  protect  and  to  defend 
them. 

It  is  on  this  civil  liberty  of  the  individual  as  a  basis 
that  all  American  life,  all  American  civilization,  and 
all  American  success  have  been  built.  We  have  offered 
the  individual  an  opportunity  to  make  the  most  of 
himself,  to  seek  his  fortune  in  what  part  of  the  country 
he  would,  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  own  honest  labor 
and  of  his  own  just  gains,  and  to  hold  whatever  social 


8  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

position  his  personality  and  his  education  might  en- 
able him  to  command.  Under  this  system  we  have 
not  only  prospered  mightily,  but  we  have  made  a 
country  that  has  drawn  to  itself  the  ambitious,  the 
long-suffering,  and  the  downtrodden  from  every  part 
of  the  globe,  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  here  in  America 
they  would  find  the  opportunity  which  conditions 
elsewhere  denied  them.  In  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  we  have  not  solved  all  the  problems  of  mankind, 
and  we  have  not  been  able  to  make  every  one  pros- 
perous and  happy;  but  we  have  made  immense  prog- 
ress toward  those  ends  and  thereby  have  become  the 
envy  and  the  admiration  of  a  watching  world.  The 
millennium  still  remains  ahead  of  us  and  all  lasting 
improvement  still  takes  time. 

Where  there  is  individual  opportunity  there  will 
always  be  inequality.  No  two  human  beings  have 
precisely  the  same  ability,  the  same  temperament,  the 
same  tastes,  or  the  same  physical  power.  Therefore  it 
is  that  when  individuals  exert  themselves  freely  some 
progress  more  rapidly  than  others,  some  secure  larger 
rewards  than  others,  and  some  gain  greater  enjoyment 
than  others.  The  only  way  in  which  this  inequality 
can  be  prevented  is  to  substitute  tyranny  for  liberty 
and  to  hold  all  men  down  to  that  level  of  accomplish- 
ment which  is  within  the  reach  of  the  weakest  and  the 
least  well-endowed.  This,  however,  is  false  democ- 
racy, not  true  democracy.  Such  a  policy  would  de- 
prive men  and  women  of  liberty  in  order  to  gain  a 
false  and  artificial  equality.  Democracy  has  begun  to 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  9 

decay  when  it  becomes  a  combination  of  the  mediocre 
and  the  inferior  to  restrain  and  to  punish  the  more 
able  and  the  more  progressive.  The  equality  which 
true  democracy  seeks  to  protect  and  preserve  is  equality 
of  opportunity,  equality  of  rights,  equality  before  the 
law.  Any  form  of  privilege  is  just  as  undemocratic  as 
is  any  form  of  tyranny.  Any  exploitation  of  the  body 
or  soul  of  one  individual  by  another  is  just  as  undemo- 
cratic as  the  Prussian  military  autocracy.  If  men  and 
women  are  to  be  free,  their  bodies  must  be  free  as  well 
as  their  souls  and  their  spirits.  This  cannot  be  done 
if  they  are  mere  tools  or  instrumentalities  in  the  hands 
of  another,  whether  that  other  be  an  individual  mon- 
arch or  a  despotic  majority.  How  to  bring  about  the 
protection  of  the  individual  from  exploitation  and  how 
to  prevent  the  growth  of  privilege  without  at  the  same 
time  destroying  civil  liberty  are  the  most  difficult  and 
the  most  persistent  problems  which  human  society  has 
to  face.  Yet  it  is  the  price  of  progress  to  face  them 
and  to  solve  them.  The  one  fact  that  is  never  to  be 
forgotten  is  that  pulling  some  men  down  raises  no 
man  up. 

But  we  are  now  told  that  these  inequalities  due  to 
liberty  have  become  so  very  great  and  the  disparity 
between  individuals  so  marked  that  civil  liberty  and 
individual  opportunity  must  be  displaced  by  the  or- 
ganized power  of  the  state.  We  hear  it  said  that  the 
conduct  of  our  daily  lives,  what  we  eat  and  drink,  the 
conduct  of  our  business,  what  we  do  and  gain,  must  all 
be  under  strict  governmental  supervision  and  control. 


io  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

Men  of  Ohio,  this  is  the  first  long  and  dangerous 
step  on  the  path  back  toward  autocracy  and  militarism. 
Once  a  state  becomes  all-powerful  it  easily  thinks  of 
itself  as  unable  to  do  wrong,  and  so  becomes  the  un- 
moral state  of  which  Prussia  and  the  German  Empire 
have  been  the  most  perfect  types.  The  all-powerful 
and  unmoral  state  can  see  nothing  higher  than  itself; 
it  admits  no  principle  of  right  or  justice  to  which  it 
must  give  heed;  such  a  state  is  an  end  in  itself  and 
what  it  chooses  to  do  is  necessarily  right. 

The  most  pressing  question  that  now  confronts  the 
American  people,  the  question  that  underlies  and  con- 
ditions all  problems  of  reconstruction  and  of  advance 
as  we  pass  from  war  conditions  to  the  normal  times  of 
peace,  is  whether  we  shall  go  forward  by  preserving 
those  American  principles  and  American  traditions 
that  have  already  served  us  so  well,  or  whether  we 
shall  abandon' those  principles  and  traditions  and  sub- 
stitute for  them  a  state  built  not  upon  the  civil  liberty 
of  the  individual  but  upon  the  plenary  power  of  or- 
ganized government. 

Those  whose  eyes  are  turned  toward  a  government 
of  the  latter  type  are  designated  in  a  general  way  as 
Socialists.  The  words  Socialism  and  Socialist,  though 
less  than  a  century  old,  have  lately  become  very  com- 
mon among  us  and  are  so  loosely  and  so  variously 
used  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  think  clearly  regarding 
the  ideas  for  which  they  stand.  Socialism,  in  the  large, 
general,  and  vague  sense  of  the  word,  means  simply 
social  reform.  In  that  sense  every  intelligent  and 


IS  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING?  n 

forward-stepping  man  or  woman  is  a  socialist.  All  of 
us  who  are  in  our  right  minds  are  anxious  to  improve 
social  conditions,  to  better  the  public  health,  to  de- 
crease the  hours  and  the  severity  of  labor,  to  increase 
the  rewards  and  to  add  to  the  satisfactions  of  those 
who  do  the  hard  manual  work  of  the  world,  to  increase 
and  make  secure  provision  against  illness,  unemploy- 
ment, and  indigent  old  age,  to  use  the  power  of  public 
taxation  to  build  roads,  to  multiply  schoolhouses,  to 
aid  with  information  and  guidance  those  who  farm  and 
those  who  mine,  to  bring  together  collections  of  books 
or  objects  of  beauty  and  of  art  for  the  information 
and  the  pleasure  of  the  great  body  of  the  people,  to 
improve  the  conditions  of  housing  in  large  cities,  and 
to  see  to  it  that  such  essentials  of  life  as  water,  light, 
and  transportation  are  furnished  of  the  best  quality 
and  at  the  lowest  practicable  cost.  If  by  Socialism 
be  meant  that  the  individual  must  not  live  for  himself 
alone,  but  must  use  his  powers,  his  capacities,  and  his 
gains  for  the  benefit  of  his  community  and  his  fellows, 
then  every  American  and  every  Christian  is  a  socialist, 
for  these  are  fundamental  to  American  life  and  to 
Christian  teaching.  All  this,  however,  is  social  re- 
form, not  Socialism. 

Socialism,  in  the  strict  and  scientific  sense  of  the 
word,  is,  however,  something  quite  different  from  this. 
Socialism  involves  not  social  reform  but  political  and 
social  revolution.  It  is  the  name  for  a  definite  public 
policy  which  rests  upon  certain  historical  and  eco- 
nomic assumptions,  all  of  which  have  been  proved  to 


12  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

be  false,  and  it  proceeds  to  very  drastic  and  far- 
reaching  conclusions,  all  of  which  are  in  flat  contra- 
diction to  American  policy  and  American  faith.  The 
assumptions  of  Socialism  are  these: 

First,  that  all  of  man's  efforts,  both  past  and  present, 
are  to  be  interpreted  and  explained  in  terms  of  his  de- 
sire for  wealth  and  of  the  processes  which  lead  to  the 
satisfaction  of  that  desire.  This  assumption  excludes 
at  once  all  moral,  religious,  and  unselfish  considera- 
tions from  history  and  from  life  and  makes  of  man 
nothing  but  a  gain-seeking  animal  preying  upon  his 
kind  wherever  he  can  lay  hands  upon  him.  There 
have  been,  and  there  doubtless  are,  many  individuals 
of  this  type;  but  to  suppose  that  the  whole  human  race 
can  be  brought  under  such  a  description  is  an  outra- 
geous travesty  on  history,  on  morals,  and  on  religion. 
This  assumption  would  reduce  all  human  history  to 
the  product  of  blind  gain-seeking  forces  and  would 
exclude  from  it  both  moral  effort  and  moral  purpose. 
Under  such  a  theory,  no  man  would  make  any  sacrifice 
for  liberty  or  for  love,  but  only  for  gain.  All  human 
experience  contradicts  so  cruel  and  so  heartless  an 
assumption. 

Second,  that  in  the  struggle  for  wealth  men  are 
divided  into  permanent  classes — those  who  employ 
and  those  who  labor — and  that  between  these  classes 
there  is  and  should  be  a  class  struggle  or  class  war  to 
be  carried  on  to  the  bitter  end  until  those  who  labor 
not  only  conquer  those  who  employ  but  exclude  them 
from  any  place  in  the  community. 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  13 

This  doctrine  of  class  struggle  is  the  savage  teaching 
of  Karl  Marx,  a  man  whose  consuming  passion  was 
hate.  It  has  been  well  said  of  Marx  that 

He  was  without  religion,  having  been  conveyed  from  Judaism 
to  Protestantism  by  his  father  at  the  age  of  six,  and  having  aban-  ' 
doned  Protestantism  for  aggressive  Atheism  when  he  grew  to  man- 
hood. He  was  a  man  embittered  by  persecution,  enraged  by  an- 
tagonism, soured  by  adversity,  exasperated  by  suffering.  .  .  .  His 
inspiring  and  dominant  passion  was  the  passion  of  hate — hate  in 
its  virulent  and  peculiarly  Germanic  form.  ...  It  was  hate  that 
goaded  him  to  his  enormous  literary  labors;  it  was  hate  that  de- 
termined his  selection  and  rejection  of  historical  facts  for  his  dis- 
torted description  of  industrial  England;  it  was  hate  that  fixed 
his  economic  principles,  that  twisted  all  his  arguments,  that  viti- 
ated all  his  conclusions.  .  .  .  Das  Kapital  (1867)  is  the  enduring 
testament  of  Marxian  animosity.  ...  It  is  a  work  of  dogmatic 
mythology,  the  formula  of  a  new  religion  of  repulsion,  the  Koran 
of  the  class  war.1 

It  is  the  extreme  form  of  the  doctrines  of  Karl  Marx 
which  Lenine  and  Trotzky  have  been  applying  in  Rus- 
sia for  a  year  and  a  half  past  with  such  terrible  results. 
In  consequence,  that  once  great  country  of  boundless 
possibilities  is  now  as  helpless  as  a  child,  and  it  lies, 
for  the  moment,  in  social,  economic,  and  moral  ruin 
and  is  relapsing  into  barbarism.  Its  reorganized 
schools  now  devote  part  of  each  day  to  instruction  in 
atheism  and  to  removing  any  lingering  traces  of  what 
used  to  be  proudly  called  civilization.  Russia  had 
lost,  happily,  the  cruel  and  tyrannous  Tsar  who  ruled 
over  it,  but  unhappily  it  has  gained  in  his  stead  a 

'He&rqshaw,  Democracy  at  the  Crossways  (London,  1918),  pp.  209-210. 


14  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

small  group  of  violent  and  equally  cruel  autocrats 
whose  operations  make  those  of  the  Tsar  seem  like 
child's  play.  For  the  first  time  in  history,  on  a  stage 
which  the  whole  world  can  witness,  and  on  an  immense 
scale,  the  doctrines  and  theories  of  Karl  Marx  are 
being  put  to  the  test  of  practical  application.  No  one 
not  himself  blinded  by  hate  or  by  ignorance  can  be  in 
any  doubt  as  to  the  lesson  which  the  world  has  quickly 
learned  from  the  untold  sufferings  of  Russia. 

This  doctrine  of  permanent  economic  classes  and  of 
a  class  struggle  is  the  absolute  contradiction  of  democ- 
racy. It  denies  a  common  citizenship  and  an  equality 
of  rights  and  privileges  in  order  to  set  up  a  privileged 
and  an  exploiting  class  by  sheer  force  and  terrorism. 
Here  in  America  we  know  full  well  that  there  are  no 
permanent  and  conflicting  economic  classes,  for  the 
wage-worker  of  to-day  is  the  employer  of  a  few  years 
hence.  With  us  the  son  of  the  farmer  may  be  the 
leader  of  a  learned  profession  in  a  distant  city,  and  he 
who  begins  self-support  as  signalman  or  telegraph-op- 
erator may  easily  find  himself,  in  a  few  short  years,  the 
directing  head  of  a  great  railway  system.  Not  long 
ago  public  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  no 
fewer  than  nineteen  of  the  men  who  then  directed  the 
great  transportation  systems  of  the  United  States  had 
in  every  case  begun  their  careers  as  wage-workers  in 
the  service  of  one  or  another  of  the  railway  companies. 

We  know,  too,  that  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
American  citizenship  absolutely  excludes  the  notion 
that  men  gain  or  lose  anything  by  reason  of  their  occu- 


75  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING?  15 

pation.  Here  every  man  and  woman  stands  on  a 
level  of  political  equality,  and  the  vote  of  the  man  of 
wealth  is  no  more  potent  than  the  vote  of  the  man 
who  at  the  moment  may  be  seeking  employment.  In 
the  socialistic  state  permanent  economic  classes  with 
differing  and  opposing  rights  and  privileges  are  funda- 
mental. From  the  democratic  state,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  are  excluded.  Robert  Burns  was  a  true 
poet  of  democracy  when  he  sang 

"A  man's  a  man  for  a*  that.*' 

Third,  that  in  the  course  of  economic  development 
the  rich  are  getting  steadily  richer  and  steadily  fewer, 
while  the  poor  are  getting  steadily  poorer  and  steadily 
more  numerous.  This  assumption  is  easily  disposed 
of  by  the  facts,  which  show  that,  as  applied  to  America, 
these  two  statements  are  absolutely  false. 

Ours  is  a  land  in  which  more  than  twenty  millions 
of  men,  women,  and  children  have  just  now  subscribed 
to  Liberty  Bonds. 

It  is  a  land  with  more  than  18,000,000  dwellings 
occupied  by  about  21,000,000  families. 

It  is  a  land  in  which  fully  6,000,000  families  own 
their  own  homes  without  encumbrance,  while  3,000,000 
own  their  homes  subject  to  mortgage. 

It  is  a  land  in  which  more  than  12,000,000  persons 
are  depositors  in  mutual,  stock,  or  postal-savings 
banks,  with  total  deposits  amounting  to  more  than 
$6,500,000,000. 

It  is  a  land  in  which  there  are  nearly  6,500,000  farms 


1 6  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

having  a  value,  including  their  buildings  and  equip- 
ment, of  more  than  $41,000,000,000  and  yielding  an 
annual  product  of  a  value  of  more  than  $8,500,000,000. 

It  is  a  land  with  more  than  266,000  miles  of  railway 
in  operation,  carrying  in  a  year  more  than  1,000,000,000 
individual  passengers  and  more  than  2,225,000,000 
tons  of  freight. 

It  is  a  land  in  which  schools  for  the  people  are  main- 
tained at  a  total  expenditure  of  nearly  $650,000,000, 
with  an  attendance  of  more  than  20,000,000  children. 

It  is  a  land  in  which  there  are  more  than  3,000 
public  libraries  having  on  their  shelves  more  than 
75,000,000  volumes  for  the  instruction  and  inspiration 
of  the  people. 

It  is  a  land  whose  total  wealth  is  now  not  less  than 
$225,000,000,000  and  in  which  the  distribution  of  that 
wealth  is  steadily  becoming  more  equitable  and  more 
satisfactory  under  the  operation  of  the  forces  and 
principles  that  have  guided  American  life  so  long  and 
so  well. 

Who  is  it  that  has  the  temerity  to  wish  to  undermine 
the  foundations  of  so  noble  and  so  inviting  a  political 
and  social  structure  as  this  ! 

Forty  years  ago  and  more,  when  the  doctrine  of 
Socialism  was  systematically  put  forward  by  Karl 
Marx,  it  was  quickly  seized  upon  by  those  in  Germany, 
and  in  every  other  European  land  who  were  discon- 
tented with  existing  forms  of  government  and  of  social 
organization,  and  was  converted  by  them  into  a  politi- 
cal programme.  That  programme,  which  was  to  all 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  17 

intents  and  purposes  made  in  Germany,  although 
written  in  London,  contradicts  Americanism  and 
democracy  at  every  point.  It  calls,  not  for  any  pro- 
gramme of  social  reform  in  accordance  with  American 
principles  and  American  ideals,  but  for  a  programme 
of  collective  control  over  the  individual  life,  the  indi- 
vidual occupation,  and  the  individual  reward  that 
would  destroy  America  absolutely.  It  would  erect 
upon  the  ruins  of  our  democracy  an  autocratic  state  in 
which  the  tyranny  of  a  temporary  or  class  majority 
would  take  the  place  once  held  by  the  tyranny  of  an 
hereditary  monarch  or  an  hereditary  ruling  class.  Its 
most  extreme  exponents  have  not  hesitated  to  an- 
nounce themselves,  as  did  Bakunin  fifty  years  ago,  as 
apostles  of  universal  destruction. 

As  yet  the  number  of  formal  adherents  of  the  So- 
cialist party  in  the  United  States  is  not  large,  but  the 
theories  and  teachings  of  Socialism  are  being  eagerly 
and  systematically  spread  among  us.  Many  schools 
and  colleges  and  many  pulpits  are  either  unconscious 
or  willing  agents  in  this  work.  In  the  election  of  1916 
the  Socialist  party  of  the  United  States  obtained  al- 
most exactly  3.3  per  cent  of  the  total  vote.  It  is 
probable  that  by  formally  adopting  the  international 
policy  of  the  Russian  Bolshevists,  the  Socialist  party 
has  alienated  enough  of  its  former  supporters  to  re- 
duce its  probable  vote  to-day  to  less  than  2  per  cent  of 
the  total.  Small  as  this  number  is,  it  represents  or- 
ganization and  activity  out  of  all  proportion  to  its 
size.  There  should  be  no  mistake  about  its  pro- 


1 8  IS  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING? 

gramme.  It  openly  calls  our  Constitution  dishonest. 
It  denounces  the  fathers  of  our  country  as  grafters,  as 
crooks,  as  men  of  mediocre  intelligence,  and  as  attor- 
neys of  the  capitalist  class.  In  the  making  and  build- 
ing of  America  the  Socialist  can  see  nothing  of  idealism, 
nothing  of  sacrifice,  nothing  of  high  principle,  nothing 
of  love  of  liberty,  nothing  of  aspiration  for  a  finer  and 
a  freer  manhood.  The  Socialist  party  platform  of 
1912  explicitly  demanded  not  only  the  usual  collectiv- 
ist  and  communist  policies,  but  also  the  abolition  of 
the  United  States  Senate  and  of  the  veto  power  of  the 
President;  the  abolition  of  all  federal  courts  except 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  and  the  election  of 
all  judges  for  short  terms;  the  abolition  of  the  power 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  to  pass 
upon  the  constitutionality  of  legislative  acts;  and  a 
revision  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  Socialist  party  is  in  particular  antagonism  to 
the  courts,  and  the  reason  is  easy  to  state.  Under  our 
American  system  the  courts  are  established  to  protect 
civil  liberty  from  passion,  from  mob  control,  and  from 
improper  assumption  of  power  by  public  authorities 
and  public  agents.  All  this  is  most  distasteful  to  the 
orthodox  Socialist.  He  wishes  to  lay  the  hand  of  force 
upon  civil  liberty  and  to  destroy  it  for  a  despotism  of 
his  own  making.  The  courts  of  justice  are  an  ob- 
stacle in  his  way. 

The  sinister  fact,  never  to  be  forgotten,  about  this 
party  and  its  programme  is  that  they  are  in  essence 
and  of  necessity  unpatriotic  and  un-American.  Re- 


75  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  19 

publicans  and  Democrats  differ  sharply  as  to  public 
policy,  but  they  both  accept  the  principles  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  endeavor  to  apply  and  improve  them, 
each  in  their  own  way.  Neither  Republicans  nor 
Democrats  would  change  the  form  of  government 
under  which  we  live.  The  Socialist  party,  on  the  other 
hand,  openly  declares  its  purpose  to  wreck  the  present 
form  of  government,  to  undo  all  the  work  that  has 
been  accomplished  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and 
to  bring  to  an  end  the  greatest  experiment  in  republi- 
canism and  the  greatest  achievement  in  social  and  po- 
litical organization  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Let 
there  be  no  mistake  about  the  definiteness  of  this 
issue.  America's  existence  is  challenged. 

Orthodox  Socialists  are  internationalists  of  a  special 
kind.  They  are  really  not  internationalists  at  all  but 
rather  antinationalists.  They  are  not  in  favor  of 
closer,  more  kindly,  and  more  constructive  interna- 
tional relations  as  a  means  toward  justice  and  the  se- 
curity of  the  world,  but  they  desire  that  sort  of  inter- 
nationalism which  shall  extend  class  consciousness, 
class  co-operation,  and  the  class  struggle  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  existing  nations  and  so  assist  in  break- 
ing down  those  boundaries.  This  is  why  the  logical 
orthodox  Socialist  is  of  necessity  unpatriotic.  He 
does  not  believe  in  patriotism,  because  he  regards  it 
as  an  obstacle  to  the  further  extension  of  the  success- 
ful class  struggle  and  of  class  rule.  Happily,  we  have 
seen  in  our  recent  experience  that  men  may  be  sin- 
cere believers  in  many  of  the  tenets  of  Socialism  and 


20  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

yet  remain  patriotic  and  loyal  Americans.  Such  men 
as  Russell,  Walling,  Spargo,  and  Montague  have  illus- 
trated this  fact.  Unfortunately,  these  men  have  been 
but  a  small  minority  in  the  Socialist  party  or  group, 
and  they  have  seceded  from  it.  Orthodox  Socialists 
as  a  body  cannot  be  loyal  and  devoted  Americans,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  American  institutions  and  Ameri- 
can ideals  lie  straight  across  the  path  which  they  would 
like  to  pursue. 

This  distinction  between  a  true  and  a  false  interna- 
tionalism is  to  be  taken  into  account  and  clearly  reck- 
oned with  in  shaping  the  policies  of  the  world.  Just 
as  the  family  relation  enriches  and  strengthens  the  in- 
dividual, and  just  as  the  community  relation  enriches 
and  strengthens  the  family,  and  just  as  the  State  rela- 
tion enriches  and  strengthens  the  community,  and  just 
as  the  national  relation  enriches  and  strengthens  the 
State,  so  will  a  true  international  relationship  enrich 
and  strengthen  every  nation  that  enters  into  it.  Any 
plan  for  a  society  of  nations  that  would  destroy  na- 
tional initiative,  national  responsibility,  and  national 
pride  would  be  merely  a  strait-jacket  upon  human 
progress.  The  true  and  wise  society  of  nations  will 
be  one  built  out  of  nations  that  are  stronger,  more 
resourceful,  and  more  patriotic  because  of  their  new 
association  and  their  new  opportunities  for  world 
service. 

Signs  are  not  wanting  that  the  advocates  of  Social- 
ism think  it  will  be  easier  and  quicker  to  gain  ground 
in  the  United  States  by  the  indirect  method  of  involv- 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  21 

ing  us  in  a  false  international  policy  than  by  the  direct 
method  of  attempting*  to  secure  control  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  government  through  the  suffrage.  This  ex- 
plains why  Socialists  and  those  who  at  heart  sympathize 
with  them  without  openly  assuming  their  name  are  so 
anxious  that  Lenine  and  Trotzky  shall  be  formally 
recognized  as  heads  of  a  government  with  which  civil- 
ized and  honorable  men  may  have  relations  and  that 
the  German  people  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  saved 
from  the  consequences  of  their  public  crime  and  their 
military  defeat.  If  Americans  could  only  be  led  to 
give  up  their  historic  patriotism  for  a  sentimental  hu- 
manitarianism  the  battle  of  the  Socialists  would  be 
half  won.  This  is  why  it  behooves  us  to  watch  with 
anxious  care  each  step  that  our  government  proposes 
to  take  in  relation  to  international  policy.  If  it  is 
proposed  to  build  a  world  of  strong,  independent,  self- 
conscious  nations  with  close  and  friendly  international 
relations  for  the  preservation  of  the  world's  peace,  well 
and  good.  But  if  it  is  proposed  to  weaken  or  destroy 
nations  in  order  to  build  a  world  in  which  historic  na- 
tions shall  play  but  an  insignificant  part,  and  in  which 
patriotism  and  love  of  country  shall  disappear,  then 
Americans  should  oppose  such  a  policy  at  every  step 
and  with  the  utmost  vigor. 

That  which  the  American  of  to-day  opposes  to  So- 
cialist autocracy  is  not  the  crude  competitive  individ- 
ualism of  the  old-fashioned  economist  but  co-operative 
individualism  with  a  moral  purpose.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  on  the  existence  of  private  capital, 


22  IS  AMERICA  WORTH  SAVING? 

which  is  only  another  name  for  private  savings,  de- 
pend the  virtues  of  thrift,  of  liberality,  and  of  sacri- 
fice. The  observation  that  liberality  consists  in  the 
use  which  is  made  of  property  is  as  old  as  Aristotle. 

Under  modern  conditions  private  capital  is  much 
more  highly  and  more  freely  co-operative  than  any 
system  of  Socialist  organization  could  possibly  be. 
The  corporation,  with  its  provision  for  the  limited 
liability  of  the  individual  participant,  is  only  a  means 
of  bringing  about  the  co-operation  of  many  individuals 
for  a  common  cause  and  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
beneficent  developments  of  the  past  century.  It  links 
together  in  a  common  enterprise  the  joint  labors  or 
joint  savings  of  hundreds,  thousands,  even  tens  of 
thousands,  of  men  and  women,  who  to  that  extent 
are  organized  as  a  single  economic  unit  interested  in 
promoting  efficient  production  and  entitled  to  divide 
among  themselves  the  common  product.  Under  the 
system  of  private  capital  all  this  individual  co-operation 
is  free.  Under  any  Socialist  system,  whatever  co- 
operation existed  would  be  imposed  by  rule  and  en- 
forced by  the  power  of  the  majority  or  ruling  group. 
Under  the  system  of  private  capital  the  individual  co- 
operating, whether  investor  or  workman,  comes  and 
goes  as  he  chooses.  He  is  free  to  make  what  disposi- 
tion he  will  of  his  own  savings  or  of  his  own  labor. 
Under  any  Socialist  system  all  this  would  be  regulated 
for  him  and  directed  by  public  authority.  His  free- 
dom would  be  wholly  gone. 

America  is  worth  saving,  not  only  as  a  land  in  which 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  23 

men  and  women  may  be  free  and  increasingly  prosper- 
ous, but  as  a  land  and  a  government  under  which  char- 
acter can  be  built,  individual  capacity  given  oppor- 
tunity for  free  exercise,  and  co-operation  on  the  widest 
scale  promoted  not  only  for  private  advantage  but  for 
the  public  good.  As  men  become  increasingly  moral 
and  increasingly  intelligent,  their  personal  activities 
will  be  increasingly  impressed  with  a  public  interest. 
Their  citizenship  will  not  exhaust  itself  in  the  formal 
exercise  of  political  rights  or  in  merely  political  activity. 
It  will  show  itself  in  ways  that  are  economic,  social, 
and  ethical.  Throughout  this  land  there  are  thou- 
sands, hundreds  of  thousands,  of  men  and  women  who 
illustrate  this  fact.  Neither  America  nor  mankind  in 
general  is  likely  to  attain  absolute  perfection;  but 
under  the  influence  and  guidance  of  those  principles 
and  ideals  which  are  historically  and  truly  American, 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  each  succeeding 
generation  will  see  new  and  increasing  progress  toward 
the  goal  of  greater  human  happiness  and  greater  human 
satisfaction. 

The  sure  mark  of  the  reactionary  is  unwillingness  to 
make  use  of  the  teachings  of  past  experience  or  to 
read  the  lessons  of  history  and  apply  them  to  the  prob- 
lems of  to-day.  The  real  reactionary,  who  is  always 
an  egoist,  insists  that  his  own  feelings,  his  own  desires, 
his  own  ambitions  take  precedence  over  anything  that 
all  the  rest  of  mankind  may  have  said  or  done  or 
recorded.  He  wishes  to  start  life  all  over  again  in  a 
Garden  of  Eden  of  his  own,  with  a  private  serpent  and 


24  IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING? 

a  private  apple.  The  true  progressive,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  he  who  carefully  reads  history  and  carefully 
examines  the  experience  of  mankind  in  order  to  see 
what  lessons  have  already  been  learned,  what  mistakes 
need  not  be  repeated,  and  what  principles  of  organiza- 
tion and  conduct  have  established  themselves  as  sound 
and  beneficent.  Upon  all  this  the  progressive  builds  a 
new  and  consistent  structure  to  meet  the  needs  of 
to-day  in  the  lighuof  the  experience  of  yesterday.  He 
does  not  find  it  necessary  to  burn  his  own  fingers  in 
order  to  ascertain  whether  fire  is  hot. 

America  will  be  saved,  not  by  those  who  have  only 
contempt  and  despite  for  her  founders  and  her  history, 
but  by  those  who  look  with  respect  and  reverence  upon 
the  great  series  of  happenings  extending  from  the  voy- 
age of  the  Mayflower  to  the  achievements  of  the  Ameri- 
can armies  on  the  soil  of  France,  and  upon  that  long 
succession  of  statesmen,  orators,  men  of  letters,  and 
men  of  affairs  who  have  themselves  been  both  the 
product  and  the  highest  promise  of  American  life  and 
American  opportunity.  The  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence rings  as  true  to-day  as  it  did  in  1776.  The 
Constitution  remains'  the  surest  and  safest  foundation 
for  a  free  government  that  the  wit  of  man  has  yet 
devised.  Faithful  adherence  to  these  strong  and  en- 
during foundations,  and  a  high  purpose  to  apply  the 
fundamental  principles  of  American  life  with  sympathy 
and  open-mindedness  to  each  new  problem  that  pre- 
sents itself,  will  give  us  a  people  increasingly  prosper- 
ous, increasingly  happy,  and  increasingly  secure. 


IS  AMERICA   WORTH  SAVING?  25 

Just  so  soon  as  the  American  people,  with  their 
quick  intelligence  and  alert  apprehension,  understand 
the  difference  between  social  reform  and  political  So- 
cialism, and  the  distinction  between  an  international- 
ism that  is  false  and  destructive  of  patriotism  and  an 
internationalism  that  is  true  and  full  of  appeal  to  every 
patriot,  they  will  stamp  political  Socialism  underfoot, 
together  with  all  its  subtle  and  half-conscious  approx- 
imations and  imitations,  as  something  abhorrent  to 
our  free  American  life.  They  will  prefer  to  save 
America. 


II 

THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Utica,  New  York,  May  16,  1919 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

The  foundations  of  prosperity  are  public  security, 
public  order,  and  public  satisfaction.  Unless  a  nation 
feels  itself  secure  from  outside  attack  it  cannot  devote 
its  energies  undividedly  to  economic,  social,  and  moral 
advance.  It  must  maintain  costly  and  burdensome 
armaments  and  it  must  live  in  constant  dread  of  war. 
Unless  a  nation  is  conscious  of  its  power  to  preserve 
order  within  its  own  boundaries  and  to  enforce  the 
laws,  as  well  as  in  all  such  action  to  appeal  successfully 
to  the  sober  judgment  of  the  people  for  support,  it  can- 
not hope  to  be  prosperous.  Unless  a  nation  is  success- 
ful in  providing  ways  and  means  by  which  the  normal 
and  honorable  hopes  and  ambitions  of  its  people  may 
be  reasonably  satisfied,  it  will  be  confronted  by  a  con- 
stant unrest  and  a  turbulence  which  hold  prosperity 
in  check.  These  are  the  reasons  why  international 
peace,  industrial  peace,  and  an  improving  social  order 
are  so  eagerly  desired  by  all  those  who  would  increase 
the  happiness  and  multiply  the  satisfactions  of  man- 
kind. No  one  of  these  three  aims,  however,  is  to  be 
achieved  through  rhetorical  formulas,  international 
agreements,  or  national  legislation  alone.  Behind  any 
or  all  of  these  must  be  a  convinced  public  opinion  and 
a  satisfied  public  conscience.  What  we  must  deal  with 

29 


30          THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

is  not  so  much  formulas  and  treaties  and  laws  as  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  men. 

The  entire  world  has  been  for  a  long  time  past  in 
a  state  of  peculiarly  unstable  equilibrium.  This  has 
been  due  to  the  operation  over  the  whole  area  of  civili- 
zation of  two  sets  of  powerful  forces,  one  political  and 
one  economic,  which  have  been  added  to  the  ordinary 
and  customary  human  strivings  for  improvement  and 
for  change.  The  world  is  always  in  process  of  devel- 
opment; but  for  at  least  three  hundred  years  this 
development  has  taken  the  form  of  constant  and 
wide-spread  agitation  for  immediate  results. 

The  political  forces  that  have  been  and  still  are  at 
work  are  those  making  for  the  building  of  independent 
and  homogeneous  nations  and  those  making  for  in- 
creased and  better-established  civil  and  political  liberty 
for  the  individual.  In  the  former  case  these  strivings 
have  led  to  many  international  wars.  In  the  latter 
case  they  have  led  to  many  domestic  revolutions,  some 
peaceful  and  some  violent.  The  history  of  the  making 
of  Great  Britain,  of  France,  of  Italy,  and  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  illustrates  how  peoples  have  had  to  fight 
their  way  to  national  unity  through  war.  The  history 
of  the  English,  the  American,  the  French,  and  the  Rus- 
sian Revolutions  illustrates  by  what  various  methods 
men  have  struggled  to  achieve  adequate  and  well- 
established  civil  and  political  liberty  as  well  as  what 
dangers  and  excesses  may  attend  and  accompany  these 
struggles. 

As  a  result  of  the  great  war  whose  issues  are  now  in 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY         31 

process  of  settlement,  the  movement  toward  nation- 
building  has  received  great  impetus.  Poland,  Czecho- 
slovakia, Jugoslavia,  and  Armenia  are  taking  their 
place  as  self-conscious  and  autonomous  nationalities. 
Greece  will  certainly  find  her  people  reunited  in  one 
governmental  system,  including  those  who  have  so 
long  lived  under  the  Turkish  yoke.  The  union  of 
Italy  will  be  completed  and  secured.  It  is  probable 
that  a  great  federal  Russia  will  shortly  rise  on  the 
site  of  the  political  and  economic  ruin  which  autocracy 
and  Bolshevism  have  combined  to  produce.  The 
peace  and  order  of  the  world  would  be  retarded,  not 
advanced,  if  in  this  process  any  attempt  were  made 
to  divide  the  German  people  among  several  sovereign- 
ties. The  desire  for  nation-building  is  as  strong  among 
the  Germans  as  among  any  other  modern  people,  and 
Bismarck's  great  hold  upon  the  German  people  was 
due  to  his  being  in  their  eyes  the  embodiment  of  the 
movement  for  national  unity.  To  dismember  and 
divide  any  modern  people  and  to  apportion  them 
among  several  sovereignties  is  simply  to  invite  new 
wars.  The  waters  of  national  psychology  cannot  be 
made  to  flow  up-hill. 

When  nation-building  goes  beyond  its  just  limits 
and  passes  over  into  an  ambition  for  world-domination, 
it  invites,  indeed  it  compels,  war.  This  is  precisely 
what  happened  in  the  case  of  the  German  Empire. 
The  government  of  the  Hohenzollerns  was  not  content 
with  a  powerful  and  united  Germany  but  conceived 
the  ambition  to  dominate  the  world.  What  followed 


32  THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

we  all  know.  This  German  ambition  was  an  attempt 
to  turn  back  the  wheels  of  political  progress  and  to 
emulate  the  Alexanders,  the  Caesars,  the  Charlemagnes, 
the  Charles  Fifths,  and  the  Napoleons  of  an  old  and 
outworn  order.  The  legitimate  end  of  nation-build- 
ing is  not  world-domination  in  any  form  but  member- 
ship in  an  ordered  society  of  nations. 

The  forces  that  have  been  making  for  the  definition 
and  establishment  of  civil  and  political  liberty  re- 
ceived most  complete  and  most  convincing  recogni- 
tion through  the  English,  American,  and  French  Revo- 
lutions and  particularly  through  the  framing  and 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
While  those  revolutions  left  many  things  yet  to  be 
done,  some  of  them  highly  important,  nevertheless, 
they  did  clearly  establish  the  principles  upon  which 
civil  and  political  liberty,  as  well  as  ordered  govern- 
ment for  their  protection,  must  rest.  Sometimes, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  German  Empire,  the  movement 
for  civil  and  political  liberty  has  been  held  in  check 
until  the  movement  for  nation-building  had  run  its 
full  course.  In  this  way  is  to  be  explained  the  failure 
of  the  Revolution  of  1848  in  Germany,  despite  the 
strong  and  wide-spread  support  which  that  revolu- 
tionary movement  possessed.  The  quick  success  of 
the  political  revolution  in  Germany,  following  the  de- 
feat of  German  arms  and  German  policy  in  this  war, 
is  the  natural  result  of  the  free  working  of  forces  long 
pent  up  by  the  desire,  first  of  all,  to  make  Germany 
strong,  prospeious,  and  world-dominating. 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY          33 

If  we  are  to  look  for  the  foundations  of  prosperity 
we  shall  find  them  first  in  the  satisfaction  of  these 
perfectly  natural  and  very  powerful  human  ambitions 
and  political  forces  which  make  for  nation-building 
and  for  the  definition  and  establishment  of  civil  and 
political  liberty.  Until  these  force  have  expressed 
themselves  in  achievement,  and  until  the  ambitions 
which  they  represent  are  reasonably  well  satisfied, 
there  can  be  neither  peace  nor  order  between  nations 
or  within  nations. 

Until  the  process  of  nation-building  is  substantially 
complete,  and  until  the  ambition  for  world-domination 
has  been  given  up  by  every  nation,  there  can  be  no 
assurance  of  public  security;  and  until  that  time  one 
of  the  necessary  foundations  of  prosperity  will  be 
lacking.  Immense  progress  has  been  made  toward 
the  establishment  of  public  security  by  the  defeat  of 
the  imperialistic  policies  and  ambitions  of  Germany 
and  by  the  entry  of  Poland,  Czechoslovakia,  Jugo- 
slavia, and  Armenia  into  the  family  of  independent 
nations.  At  the  very  moment  when  the  forces  that 
make  for  public  security  were  rapidly  gaining  ground 
the  forces  that  make  for  public  order  within  a  nation 
were  being  gravely  weakened.  This  resulted  pri- 
marily from  the  extreme  and  destructive  course  taken 
by  the  Russian  Revolution.  The  disorderly,  the  law- 
less, and  the  irresponsible  elements  in  other  lands 
hailed  the  advent  of  Bolshevism  in  Russia  as  a  signal 
to  redouble  their  own  energies  as  revolutionaries  and 
as  trouble-makers.  If  any  nation  is  to  be  prosperous, 


34          THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

and  if  the  world  is  to  be  prosperous,  these  Bolshevist 
forces  must  not  only  be  held  in  check  but  overthrown. 
They  are  active,  persistent,  and  conscious  enemies 
of  any  public  order  that  is  not  based  upon  tyranny 
and  of  any  prosperity  that  is  not  the  exploitation  of 
a  people  by  a  class.  For  lovers  of  civil  and  political 
liberty  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  constructive 
forces  that  are  working  for  the  rebuilding  of  Russia 
is  not  an  act  of  international  interference  but  an  act 
of  national  self-defense.  Bolshevism  seeks  to  con- 
quer Russia  only  that  it  may  have  a  starting-point 
from  which  to  conquer  France,  Great  Britain,  and  the 
United  States.  Public  order,  a  necessary  foundation 
of  prosperity,  will  not  be  secure  until  civil  and  political 
liberty  are  finally  and  definitely  protected  against  the 
assaults  of  Bolshevism. 

The  second  great  set  of  forces  which  have  been 
operating,  and  with  especial  force  for  about  a  hun- 
dred years,  are  economic.  These  are  the  forces  brought 
into  being  and  let  loose  by  the  so-called  industrial 
revolution,  with  its  supplanting  of  the  individual 
worker  or  guild  of  workmen  by  the  factory  system, 
with  all  its  ramifications  and  results.  What  is  called 
the  industrial  revolution  is  due  to  the  introduction  of 
steam  and  electricity  as  motive  power  and  to  the  hun- 
dreds, indeed  thousands,  of  mechanical  inventions 
which  have  followed  in  their  train  and  which  have 
made  industry  and  commerce  the  highly  organized 
and  very  complex  things  which  they  now  are.  Under 
the  much  simpler  and  more  individual  system  of 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY          35 

manufacture  which  prevailed  until  a  little  more  than 
a  century  ago,  one  and  the  same  individual  was  capi- 
talist and  laborer.  The  factory  system  divided  the 
capitalist  from  the  laborer,  the  employer  from  the 
employed,  and  straightway  there  began  to  develop  a 
more  or  less  conscious  diversity  of  interest  between  the 
two  and  a  more  or  less  conscious  struggle  as  to  the 
division  of  the  product.  There  shortly  developed  a 
situation  in  which  some  employers  at  least  came  to 
look  upon  the  employees  as  only  so  many  cogs  on  a 
wheel,  or  so  many  parts  of  a  machine,  and  not  as 
human  beings  at  all.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were 
employees  who  listened  to  the  false  teaching  that  all 
value  is  the  product  of  labor  and  consequently  felt 
themselves  much  aggrieved  that  their  share  in  produc- 
tion seemed  so  small.  Industry  and  commerce  de- 
veloped more  or  less  rapidly  into  forms  of  conflict  or 
war  none  the  less  real  and  none  the  less  destructive 
because  not  carried  on  with  rifles  and  with  cannon. 
While  very  great  progress  has  been  made,  particularly 
in  the  last  few  years,  in  giving  just  recognition  to  these 
economic  forces  and  in  changing  industry  and  com- 
merce from  forms  of  conflict  or  war  into  forms  of  co- 
operation, very  much  yet  remains  to  be  done.  It  is 
true  here,  just  as  in  the  case  of  nation-building  and 
of  the  struggle  for  civil  and  political  liberty,  that  until 
these  economic  forces  express  themselves  in  achieve- 
ment, and  until  the  human  ambitions  which  they  rep- 
resent are  reasonably  satisfied,  there  can  be  neither 
peace  nor  order  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  world. 


36          THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

Without  that  peace  and  order  there  can  be  no  pros- 
perity. Industrial  war  is  quite  as  dangerous  and  quite 
as  disastrous  to  a  nation's  prosperity  as  international 
war. 

The  time  is  now  ripe  to  take  up  the  industrial  prob- 
lem as  part  of  the  great  human  problem  and  to  ad- 
vance toward  its  solution  in  that  spirit.  So  long  as  the 
industrial  problem  is  conceived  of  in  terms  of  profits 
alone,  without  regard  to  the  effect  of  industrial  proc- 
esses and  conditions  upon  human  beings,  just  so  long 
will  it  remain  unsolved  and  be  the  source  and  the 
cause  of  constant  and  severe  friction  and  unrest  which 
will  make  permanent  prosperity  impossible.  When 
the  industrial  problem  is  approached  from  the  human 
point  of  view,  one  sees  that  its  essential  characteristic 
is  the  co-operation  of  human  beings  in  the  production 
of  objects  of  value.  Those  who  co-operate,  whether 
with  their  savings,  or  with  their  brains,  or  with  the 
work  of  their  hands,  are  human  beings  and  not  ma- 
chines or  parts  of  a  machine.  They  must  be  treated 
as  human  beings  and  given  both  the  protection  and 
the  opportunity  to  which  human  beings  are  justly 
entitled  under  a  free  and  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. No  one  of  them  must  be  consciously  exploited 
by  any  other  and  no  one  of  them  must  be  consciously 
the  beneficiary  of  law-made  privilege.  Each  man  and 
woman  must  be  given  not  only  a  full  chance  but  a  free 
chance  and  a  fair  chance  to  make  the  most  of  himself. 
The  object  of  this  co-operation  is  the  production  of 
wealth,  and  it  is  from  production,  and  from  production 
alone,  that  both  wages  and  profits  are  paid.  The 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY          37 

more  production  the  greater  the  possibility  of  increased 
wages  and  the  greater  the  possibility  of  increased 
profits.  To  restrict  production  artificially  in  the  hope 
of  increase  either  in  wages  or  in  profits  is  unsound  in 
principle  and  disastrous  in  practice.  A  nation  which 
distributes  among  its  people  more  in  wages  and  in  so- 
called  profits  than  its  industrial  system  produces  is 
living  on  its  capital  and  must  sooner  or  later  come 
to  grief.  Prosperity  requires  large  production  under 
conditions  that  satisfy  human  needs  and  reasonable 
human  aspirations. 

Experience  has  taught  us  that  under  the  unchecked 
and  unregulated  competitive  system  individuals  and 
groups  of  individuals  are  often  crushed  to  the  wall 
without  that  full,  free,  and  fair  chance  which  is  their 
due.  It  is  to  meet  this  situation  that  collective  bar- 
gaining has  been  introduced  and  has  so  widely  estab- 
lished itself,  and  it  is  to  meet  this  same  situation  that 
the  attempt  has  been  made  to  organize  industry  in 
large  co-operative  units.  Both  these  movements  have 
been  vigorously  fought  by  those  who  pin  their  faith  to 
the  old  purely  competitive  system,  but  the  path  of 
progress  toward  prosperity  lies  in  the  other  direction. 
Co-operation  between  individuals  and  groups  of  indi- 
viduals for  a  sound  economic  purpose  is  a  constructive 
policy  of  almost  limitless  value  and  importance  to  the 
people.  The  danger  that  co-operating  groups  may 
establish  undue  control  over  public  interests  and  so 
achieve  privilege  is  to  be  met  by  public  supervision 
and  regulation.  The  experiences  of  the  war  have 
shown  us  that  under  pressure  of  a  great  emergency 


38          THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

we  must  throw  away  the  chains  and  shackles  of  our 
restrictive  laws  and  allow  the  largest  possible  measure 
of  economic  co-operation  under  government  control. 
What  was  found  necessary  in  time  of  war  will  be 
found  desirable  and  helpful  in  time  of  peace.  The 
next  step  forward  will  be  to  enact  constructive  federal 
legislation  that  will  not  only  permit  but  encourage  the 
formation  of  large  economic  units  for  production  and 
for  commerce  under  such  measure  of  government 
supervision  as  may  be  found  necessary  to  prevent 
abuse.  When  this  step  is  taken  not  only  our  export 
trade  but  our  domestic  trade  will  be  mightily  advanced 
and  our  power  of  national  production  will  be  vastly 
increased. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  for 
the  public  satisfaction  it  is  necessary  to  make  increas- 
ingly sure  that  no  American  citizen  is  deprived  of  his 
opportunity  to  share  in  the  nation's  prosperity  or  is 
left  to  suffer  from  any  cause  but  his  own  moral  fault. 
For  generations  it  has  been  the  custom  of  civilized 
peoples  to  make  the  care  of  the  impoverished  aged 
or  the  impoverished  disabled  a  charge  upon  the  pub- 
lic. This  has  been  done  by  way  of  relief  and  from 
motives  of  philanthropy.  Would  it  not  be  better  now 
to  deal  with  this  aspect  of  the  problem  by  the  use  of 
modern  methods  of  prevention  and  in  a  spirit  not  so 
much  of  philanthropy  as  of  justice  ?  No  free  govern- 
ment can  permanently  endure  except  upon  the  founda- 
tion of  public  satisfaction,  and  public  satisfaction  is 
impossible  if  large  numbers  of  individuals  or  groups 


THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY          39 

of  persons  who  are  not  perhaps  as  well  equipped  as 
many  of  their  fellows  for  success  in  the  business  of 
life  are  allowed,  while  retaining  the  full  rights  of  citi- 
zenship, to  fall  below  that  level  of  comfort  and  com- 
petency which  the  common  judgment  indicates  to  be 
necessary  for  a  human  being.  In  the  United  States 
we  have  long  undertaken,  through  compulsory  edu- 
cation laws,  to  provide  that  minimum  of  formal  in- 
struction and  training  which  we  have  felt  it  neces- 
sary for  children  to  have  in  order  that  they  might 
grow  into  useful  and  intelligent  citizens.  Has  not  the 
time  come  for  our  people,  acting  in  the  same  spirit, 
to  study  ways  and  means  of  providing  a  national 
minimum  for  the  health,  comfort,  and  opportunity  of 
the  individual  as  well  as  for  his  education  ?  Such 
policies  of  social  advance  as  these,  carried  out  by  be- 
lievers in  a  republican  form  of  government,  offer  the 
surest  protection  against  the  revolutionary  threaten- 
ings  of  international  Socialism.  A  conviction  that 
justice,  fair  play,  and  broad  human  feeling  animate  a 
nation  will  keep  Bolshevism  forever  beyond  its  bor- 
ders. Among  a  hundred  millions  of  people  there  will 
always  be  the  degenerate,  the  psychopathic,  and  the 
eager  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  and  of  the  social 
order;  but  they  will  all  be  powerless  to  overturn  or 
to  undermine  our  form  of  government  if  it  rests  upon 
public  satisfaction. 

Prosperity  lies  all  about  us  and  invites  us  to  enter 
into  its  broad  field  of  opportunity.     With  the  German 


40          THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  PROSPERITY 

military  power  overthrown  and  broken  forever,  our 
national  security  is  established  beyond  peradventure. 
If  we  insist  upon  a  stalwart  and  patriotic  Americanism 
as  against  the  clamorous  cries  of  those  among  us  who 
are  teaching  and  preaching  international  Socialism 
and  Bolshevism,  we  shall  have  no  trouble  in  establish- 
ing and  maintaining  public  order.  If,  finally,  we  treat 
industry  and  commerce  as  undertakings  in  human 
co-operation  for  human  ends,  and  build  up  the  largest 
possible  measure  of  co-operation  between  individuals 
and  between  groups  under  government  supervision 
and  control,  taking  care  that  a  national  minimum  of 
health,  of  education,  and  of  comfort  be  defined  and 
provided,  we  shall  have  established  that  measure  of 
public  satisfaction  which,  combined  with  public  secu- 
rity and  public  order,  will  make  prosperity  certain  and 
long-continued. 


Ill 


A  PROGRAMME  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE 
PROGRESS 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Commercial  Club, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  February  16,  1918 


A  PROGRAMME  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE 
PROGRESS 

The  record  of  the  past  four  years  shows  that  the 
free  nations  of  the  world  have  sadly  lacked  foresight. 
Autocracy  knew  what  was  coming,  helped  to  bring  it 
on,  and  systematically  organized  and  prepared  for  it. 
The  free  peoples  did  not  know  what  was  coming,  and 
they  are  now  paying  the  heavy  cost  of  failure  to  fore- 
cast the  future  and  to  be  ready  quickly  and  effectively 
to  meet  its  problems. 

One  of  the  chief  applications  of  scientific  knowledge 
is  in  prediction.  When  one  knows  what  has  happened 
and  why  it  happened  he  is  in  position  to  tell  what  is 
likely  to  happen  next.  Just  so,  one  of  the  chief  marks 
of  civilization  should  be  foresight.  It  is  not  a  worthy 
use  of  liberty  and  opportunity  merely  to  drift  from 
day  to  day,  to  satisfy  instant  material  and  economic 
wants,  with  no  thought  of  what  is  to  follow.  A  truly 
civilized  people  will  be  a  ready  and  a  prepared  people. 
So  long  as  wars  are  inevitable,  or  even  likely,  the  free 
peoples  will  hereafter  be  ready  and  prepared  for  war. 
But  the  demands  of  peace  are  even  more  insistent  and 
more  compelling  than  those  of  war.  No  civilized 
people  is  prepared  for  peace  unless  it  takes  account  not 
only  of  yesterday  and  of  to-day  but  of  to-morrow  and 
the  day  after  to-morrow.  The  forces  that  are  making 

43 


44  A  PROGRAMME 

for  change  and  for  progress,  the  ideas  that  are  stim- 
ulating men  to  new  undertakings  and  new  aspirations 
are  the  driving  forces  to  be  taken  into  account  by  those 
who  would  guide  and  direct  public  opinion. 

The  novelty  of  an  idea  or  a  suggestion  has  an  attrac- 
tiveness out  of  all  proportion  to  its  value.  Men  like 
the  new,  the  unfamiliar,  the  untried.  Yet  the  fact 
that  an  idea  or  a  suggestion  is  new  sheds  no  light 
whatever  upon  its  value  or  its  truth.  John  Bright 
used  to  say  that  the  first  instinct  of  an  English  work- 
ing man  on  hearing  a  new  idea  was  to  "  'eave  'arf  a 
brick  at  it."  That  is  not  a  safe  or  a  wise  attitude  for 
civilized  peoples  to  take  toward  new  ideas.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  welcome  them,  to  examine  them  with  sympathy, 
and  to  take  from  them  whatever  of  value  and  helpful- 
ness they  offer.  The  important  thing  is  not  whether 
an  idea  is  new,  but  whether  it  is  true.  Novelty  and 
truth  have  absolutely  no  relation  to  each  other. 

The  American  people  are  going  through  a  tremen- 
dous upheaval.  This  upheaval  reaches  and  affects 
every  part  of  their  social,  their  industrial,  and  their 
political  system.  Habits  of  life  and  of  business  that 
have  grown  up  over  generations  are  rudely  interrupted. 
Laws  that  have  been  hailed  as  great  advances  in  the 
realm  of  government  are  wiped  out  by  executive  fiat. 
The  distinction  between  the  field  of  government  and 
the  field  of  free  action,  by  means  of  which  our  whole 
American  system  has  been  built  up,  is  practically  swept 
away,  at  least  for  the  moment.  The  nation  finds  that 
it  was  without  proper  governmental  or  economic 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  45 

organization  to  make  the  supreme  effort  necessary  to 
win  the  war,  and  that  such  an  organization  must  be 
improvised  out  of  the  materials  that  are  at  hand  and 
without  much  regard  to  law,  to  tradition,  or  to  past 
experience.  Tremendous  and  unsettling  as  this  revo- 
lution is,  its  effects  are  bound  to  be  beneficial.  The 
American  people  will  not  soon  again  be  satisfied  with 
old  formulas  or  restrain  themselves  in  patience  while 
the  slow  forces  of  nature  operate  to  mitigate  conditions 
that  directly  affect  human  life  and  human  happiness. 
The  people  as  a  whole  will  be  more  open-minded  than 
they  have  been  in  a  hundred  years,  and  the  country's 
business  will  be  conducted  by  new  methods  and,  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  upon  lines  of  greater  and  more  general 
satisfaction  than  ever  before. 

So  long  as  we  confine  ourselves  to  generalities  there 
is  not  likely  to  be  disagreement  as  to  these  reflections. 
Difference  and  difficulty  arise  when  we  endeavor  to 
state  in  terms  of  specific  acts  or  policies  how  we  should 
proceed  better  to  prepare  our  government  and  our 
people,  not  alone  for  war,  which  is  at  best  a  passing 
phenomenon,  but  for  that  peace — and  let  us  hope  it 
will  be  a  durable  peace — which  will  be  the  outcome  of 
the  war. 

Let  me  state  as  briefly  as  possible  how  I  should  like 
to  see  our  nation  prepare  itself  for  its  future  tasks: 

I.  The  American  Government  should  as  promptly  as 
possible  settle  upon  a  definite  and  precise  plan  for  the 
establishment  of  closer  and  better  co-operation  be- 
tween nations  in  establishing  and  maintaining  order 


46  A  PROGRAMME 

and  justice  throughout  the  world.  The  form  of  this 
co-operation  would  be  built  upon  the  conclusions  of 
the  Hague  Conferences  of  1899  and  1907.  It  would 
make  international  war  increasingly  unlikely  and  it 
might  even  make  international  war  practically  impos- 
sible. The  materials  for  such  a  definite  and  precise 
plan  are  at  hand  in  the  state  papers  and  public  ad- 
dresses of  representative  and  responsible  American 
statesmen,  especially  those  who  were  charged  with 
the  conduct  of  the  country's  foreign  policy  from  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  War  to  the  outbreak  of  the  pres- 
ent struggle.  It  would  seem  that  some  of  the  dreams 
of  the  seers  of  past  centuries  can  shortly  be  realized. 
Out  of  the  present  alliance  of  free  democratic  peoples 
may  readily  be  built  the  structure  of  a  league  or  so- 
ciety of  nations  which  shall  not  attempt  too  much 
but  which  shall  at  least  put  into  effect  the  lessons 
taught  by  the  present  war. 

A  League  to  establish  and  to  enforce  the  rules  of 
international  law  and  conduct  is  now  in  existence,  with 
the  United  States  as  one  of  its  most  potent  members. 
This  League  should  be  a  permanent  addition  to  the 
world's  organization  for  order  and  for  peace.  Upon 
its  firm  establishment,  three  consequences  will  almost 
necessarily  follow.  First,  there  can  be  no  separate 
alliances  or  ententes  of  a  political  or  military  character 
between  nations  included  in  the  League,  and  this 
League  must  aim  in  time  to  include  the  whole  civilized 
world.  Second,  there  can  be  a  speedy  reduction  of 
armaments  both  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  taxation 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  47 

and  to  turn  the  minds  of  the  nations  away  from  inter- 
national war,  to  prevent  which  will  be  such  a  League's 
chief  aim.  Third,  the  most-favored-nation  clause  must 
be  made  applicable  to  all  members  of  the  League  when- 
ever treaties  of  commerce  are  concluded  between  any 
two  or  more  of  the  nations  that  are  included  in  it. 
This  will  either  greatly  lessen  or  wholly  remove  one  of 
the  strongest  economic  temptations  to  international 
war. 

The  International  Court  of  Justice  urged  by  the 
American  Delegation  at  the  Second  Hague  Conference 
may  surely  now  be  called  into  being.  This  Court 
would  have  the  same  jurisdiction  over  questions  affect- 
ing international  relations  and  international  law  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  over  all 
cases  in  law  and  equity  arising  under  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  and  treaties  made  under  its 
authority.  The  enforcement,  when  necessary,  of  the 
findings  of  this  Court  should  be  a  matter  of  joint  inter- 
national action  in  accordance  with  a  definite  plan  to 
be  determined  upon  when  the  Court  is  established. 
The  principle  upon  which  this  action  will  rest  has  been 
stated  with  characteristic  precision  by  Mr.  Asquith 
when  he  said  that  the  rule  of  the  authority  of  an  Inter- 
national Court  "must  be  supported  in  case  of  need  by 
the  strength  of  all;  that  is,  in  the  last  resort,  by  armed 
force." 

For  the  success  of  this  Court  it  is  imperative  that 
secret  international  understandings  b.e  deprived  of  any 
validity  whatever  in  international  law.  It  would  be 


48  A  PROGRAMME 

well  to  provide  that  as  a  condition  of  the  validity  in  in- 
ternational law  of  any  treaty  between  two  contracting 
Powers,  a  copy  of  it  must  be  deposited,  immediately 
upon  its  ratification,  in  the  archives  of  the  International 
Court  of  Justice  at  The  Hague.  There  would  then  be 
at  least  one  official  public  depository  for  every  existing 
valid  treaty.  So  far  as  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is  concerned  secret  treaties  are  not  practicable, 
since  every  treaty  must  be  ratified  by  the  Senate.  It 
has  been  quite  customary  in  Europe,  however,  even 
in  the  case  of  some  democratically  governed  countries, 
to  keep  from  the  knowledge  of  parliaments  and  of  the 
people  international  understandings  and  agreements 
that  are  entered  into  from  time  to  time. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  any  such  plan 
of  international  co-operation  as  is  proposed  involves 
giving  up  the  absolute  right  of  any  government  to  deal 
finally,  and  without  appeal  except  to  war,  with  ques- 
tions arising  out  of  treaties  or  relations  between  itself 
and  some  other  government.  No  serious  progress  can 
be  made  in  getting  rid  of  war  unless  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  people  of  other  countries  as  \ 
well,  are  ready  to  take  this  long  step  forward. 

The  war  itself,  however,  has  carried  us  far  beyond 
even  so  advanced  a  programme  as  this.  The  war  has 
taught  its  own  lessons  of  international  co-operation 
and  international  interdependence.  It  has  brought 
about  a  new  economic  internationalism.  The  necessi- 
ties of  the  conflict  have  broken  down,  one  after  another, 
many  of  the  accustomed  national  barriers.  Transpor- 


49 

tation  on  land  and  by  sea,  the  manufacture  and  dis- 
tribution of  munitions  and  of  the  auxiliaries  of  war, 
as  well  as  financial  resources,  have  all  been  removed 
from  the  field  of  ordinary  competition  and  reorganized 
on  a  basis,  first,  of  national  and  then  of  international 
co-operation.  Not  all  of  these  emergency  undertak- 
ings are  desirable  to  continue  in  times  of  peace;  but 
the  lessons  of  economy,  of  avoidance  of  waste,  and  of 
prompt  effectiveness  that  they  teach  will  not  be  lost. 
Probably  the  attempt  to  enforce  competition  by  law, 
and  similarly  to  punish  co-operation,  will  now  be  every- 
where abandoned  in  the  light  of  these  latest  and  most 
convincing  lessons  of  experience. 

Unless  the  result  of  the  war  is  not  only  to  defeat 
Germany  and  her  allies,  but  to  convince  them  that 
they  are  defeated,  there  will  be  in  the  world  for  some 
time  to  come  two  great  international  combinations, 
the  members  of  which  will  manifest  their  sympathies 
in  military,  political,  and  economic  co-operation. 
Such  a  situation  would  not  be  a  promising  one  from 
the  standpoint  of  those  who  hope  that  the  present 
may  be  the  last  of  wars;  but  unless  the  war  be  reso- 
lutely pursued  to  victory  by  the  Allies,  at  whatever 
cost,  such  a  situation  is  a  possibility  to  be  seriously 
reckoned  with. 

A  League  of  Nations  that  rests  upon  a  moral  founda- 
tion and  that  has  for  its  aim  the  good  order,  the  satis- 
faction, and  the  advancing  happiness  of  the  world, 
cannot  permanently  exclude  from  its  membership  any 
nation  except  one  openly  in  arms  against  it. 


So  A  PROGRAMME 

2.  The  unpreparedness  of  America  alike  for  war  and 
for  peace  is  now  obvious  to  everybody.  It  calls  upon  us 
to  establish  without  delay  a  well-ordered  system  of  na- 
tional training  for  national  service.  In  no  other  way 
can  the  youth  of  the  nation  be  instructed  and  disci- 
plined for  purposes  of  national  defense,  or  imbued 
with  a  spirit  of  national  devotion  that  will  break  down 
all  limitations  of  race  origin,  of  language,  and  of  local 
patriotism,  or  given  an  adequate  chance  to  fit  them- 
selves for  useful  and  productive  life  work  in  truly  demo- 
cratic fashion.  It  has  long  been  the  policy  of  the  sev- 
eral States  to  protect  themselves  and  their  citizens 
from  the  evils  and  the  dangers  that  are  characteristic 
of  illiteracy,  and  that  accompany  lack  of  intellectual 
and  moral  discipline,  by  requiring  attendance  upon 
the  elementary  school  for  a  definitely  prescribed  period. 
In  this  same  spirit  and  on  similar  grounds,  the  nation 
should  now  say  to  each  youth  approaching  manhood, 
that,  for  part  of  one  year,  or  of  two  successive  years, 
he  must  submit  himself  for  a  definite  period  to  instruc- 
tion and  training  under  direct  national  supervision 
and  control,  in  order  that  three  distinct  purposes  may 
be  accomplished — first,  that  he  may,  in  association 
with  youth  of  like  age,  get  a  new  and  vivid  sense  of 
the  meaning  and  obligations  of  citizenship;  second, 
that  he  may  be  physically  and  intellectually  prepared 
to  take  part  in  his  country's  service  or  his  country's 
defense  should  occasion  ever  arise;  third,  that  specific 
direction  may  be  given  to  his  capacities  and  powers,  so 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  51 

that  he  may  be  better  prepared  than  would  otherwise 
be  the  case  for  useful  and  productive  citizenship. 
If  it  be  objected  that  this  is  too  large  a  task,  the  an- 
swer is  that  it  involves  the  training  in  any  one  year 
of  only  about  as  many  individuals  as  are  now  annually 
enrolled  in  the  public  school  systems  of  New  York 
and  Chicago,  and  that  the  nation's  security  and  well- 
being  depend  upon  its  accomplishment. 

The  first  of  these  aims  involves  the  building  of  the 
nation,  strong  and  firm,  out  of  the  many  divergent 
elements  that  have  now  entered  into  its  composition, 
particularly  in  the  large  cities  and  on  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  seaboards.  A  call  to  citizenship  so  direct  and 
so  imperative  would  in  most  cases  quite  outweigh  the 
prejudices  and  prepossessions  that  alien  birth  or  alien 
sympathies  may  have  created.  The  second  of  these 
aims  would,  when  accomplished,  provide  us  with  a 
trained  citizen  soldiery  similar  to  that  of  Switzerland, 
without  any  large  standing  army,  without  any  mili- 
taristic spirit  or  ambitions,  and  without  interrupting, 
save  to  its  advantage,  the  ordinary  course  of  a  young 
man's  preparation  and  entrance  upon  the  active  duties 
of  life.  The  third  of  these  aims  would  be  a  powerful 
contribution  to  the  world-wide  problem  of  vocational 
training.  It  would  fit  men  to  do  better  that  for  which 
they  have  natural  capacity,  and  it  would  multiply  the 
economic  power  of  the  nation. 

It  seems  an  entirely  safe  prediction  that  were  this 
system  established,  its  advantages  would  be  so  obvious 


52  A  PROGRAMME 

and  so  direct  that  there  would  be  a  quick  demand  to 
make  similar  provision  for  the  national  training  of 
young  women  as  well. 

The  nation  has  just  expended  tens  of  millions  of 
dollars  in  the  building  of  cantonments  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  These  cantonments  are  now  the 
homes  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  citizen  soldiers 
who  are  being  prepared  to  take  their  part  in  the  war. 
Why  should  not  these  cantonments  be  made  perma- 
nent ?  Why  should  not  the  money  expended  upon 
them  be  made  continuously  productive  by  using  these 
camps  for  the  training  of  the  youth  of  the  land  for 
national  service  during  a  portion  of  each  year  ? 

When  the  war  shall  end  the  governments  will  be 
faced  by  the  problems  of  demobilization.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  there  are  now  thirty-five  million  men 
under  arms.  The  task  of  demobilizing  these  unprec- 
edented armies  and  of  returning  their  members  to 
industrial,  to  commercial,  and  to  professional  life  will 
be  far  more  serious  than  has  been  the  task  of  their 
mobilization,  and  fraught  with  even  graver  economic 
and  political  dangers  and  perils.  Might  it  not  be 
possible  to  have  the  American  national  army  demobil- 
ized by  a  process  just  the  reverse  of  that  by  which  it 
has  been  brought  together?  Might  not  the  returning 
armies  be  brought  back  to  the  national  cantonments 
before  being  disbanded,  in  order  that  then  and  there 
those  soldiers  who  were  found  to  need  assistance  or 
further  training  might  receive  it  before  being  cast  as 
derelicts  upon  society  ?  In  these  several  cantonments 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  53 

it  would  be  quite  practicable  to  install  the  necessary 
equipment  for  training  men  in  at  least  some  of  those 
numerous  trades  and  occupations  that  are  necessary 
to  the  support  of  armies.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
there  are  nearly  two  hundred  such  trades  and  occupa- 
tions. A  few  months,  or  even  a  few  weeks,  of  instruc- 
tion bestowed  upon  these  men  when  the  time  of  de- 
mobilization comes,  might  easily  save  them  and  the 
nation  itself  incalculable  suffering  and  loss  later  on. 
The  example  of  France  shows  what  beneficent  arrange- 
ments may  be  made,  through  an  undertaking  of  this 
kind,  to  render  self-supporting  many  of  those  who  have 
been  grievously  wounded  or  maimed  in  the  war. 

The  American  people  will  be  slow  to  accept  a  plan 
of  national  training  for  national  service  if  it  is  pre- 
sented solely  from  the  military  point  of  view,  because, 
offered  in  that  way,  it  runs  counter  to  the  deep  convic- 
tions of  many  persons.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
presented  from  this  larger,  more  constructive,  and 
more  catholic  point  of  view,  it  will,  perhaps,  commend 
itself  to  those  men  and  women  of  our  land  who  long 
to  see  the  nation  still  more  completely  unified  in  spirit, 
in  purpose,  and  in  loyalty,  and  who  look  with  dismay 
upon  the  large  number  of  youth  who  drift  every  year 
into  the  active  work  of  life  without  either  adequate 
or  specific  preparation,  and  with  no  notion  of  their 
national  obligations.  It  may  be  questioned  whether 
any  single  step  in  advance  more  helpful  than  this 
could  be  taken  by  our  government  at  the  present  time. 

3.   Something  must  be  done  without  much  delay  to 


54  A  PROGRAMME 

alter  and  to  improve  the  relation  of  the  population  to 
the  land.  The  steady  drift  toward  the  cities  is  un- 
healthy, and  it  is  not  merely  an  American  phenomenon; 
it  is  manifesting  itself  in  nearly  every  part  of  the 
world,  and  its  causes  are  perhaps  almost  as  much 
psychological  as  economic.  The  satisfactions  of  coun- 
try life  are  reserved  in  too  large  part  for  the  poets, 
the  essayists,  the  writers  for  the  agricultural  papers, 
and  the  well-to-do.  This  problem  of  the  land  and  of 
country  life  relates  itself  to  the  problem  of  demobili- 
zation in  a  way  which  should  not  be  overlooked. 

When  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Northern 
armies  were  disbanded  there  was  wide-spread  concern 
lest  political  and  economic  disturbance  would  follow. 
It  happened,  however,  that  the  nation  of  fifty  years 
ago  absorbed  the  soldier-folk  quickly  and  without 
much  difficulty.  In  no  inconsiderable  degree  this 
absorption  was  made  possible  by  the  provisions  of  the 
Homestead  Act  and  other  legislation  which  invited 
settlers  to  the  public  lands  on  easy  terms.  The  result 
was  the  rapid  development  of  a  dozen  new  common- 
wealths that  have  long  been  an  integral  part  of  the 
nation's  pride  and  of  the  nation's  strength. 

Having  reference  to  what  has  been  accomplished 
during  the  last  generation  in  Denmark,  Ireland,  and 
elsewhere,  it  is  worth  consideration  whether  the  nation 
could  not,  by  the  use  of  its  credit  and  in  co-operation 
with  the  several  States,  lead  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Americans  back  to  the  land.  The  amount  of  public 
land  available  for  entry  is  no  longer  significant,  but 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  55 

scattered  all  over  the  country  there  are  areas  of  land, 
very  large  indeed  in  total  amount,  that  might  be  used 
for  purchase,  occupation,  and  development  through  the 
use  of  the  nation's  credit.  An  advance  at  a  low  rate 
of  interest  and  payable  in  annual  instalments  extend- 
ing over,  say,  twenty  or  twenty-five  years,  would 
enable  great  numbers  of  ambitious  and  intelligent 
Americans,  many  of  them  recently  drawn  from  nations 
across  the  sea,  to  become  owners  and  tillers  of  the  soil 
and  so  added  to  the  producers  of  the  food  supply  of 
the  nation  and  of  the  world.  History  seems  to  teach 
that  nothing  contributes  more  to  social  stability  and 
satisfaction  than  widely  distributed  land  ownership 
and  land  occupancy.  We  have  recently  seen  the  ill 
effects  of  an  opposite  policy  in  countries  as  widely  sep- 
arated and  as  different  as  Mexico  and  Russia.  It 
seems  likely  that  great  good  could  be  done  just  now 
by  measures  that  would  establish  American  families 
increasingly  upon  American  soil.  The  success  of  such 
a  policy  would  operate  to  diminish  the  congestion  in 
city  population,  with  its  attendant  evils  of  bad  housing, 
industrial  disease,  and  overtaxed  educational  facilities. 
It  would  have  a  continuing  effect  to  diminish  the  high 
cost  of  living.  Accompanied  by  good  roads,  multi- 
plied telephone  service,  circulating  libraries,  and  other 
similar  enterprises,  such  a  policy  might  well,  before 
many  years,  put  a  very  different  face  upon  what  is 
now  discontent,  unhappiness,  and  unrest  in  the  great 
centres  of  population. 

At  the  same  time,  we  are  not  allowed  to  forget  that 


56  A  PROGRAMME 

there  are  practical  questions  affecting  the  farmer  him- 
self which  await  a  satisfactory  answer.  Probably  the 
simplification  and  the  cheapening  of  the  farmer's  access 
to  his  market  and  steadily  improving  methods  of  cul- 
tivation are  what  is  chiefly  required. 

4.  In  order  to  punish  offenses  long  since  committed 
and  to  prevent  their  repetition,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  for  thirty  years  encouraged  and 
given  wide  support  to  a  governmental  policy  toward 
the  railways  which  has  now  had  its  logical  and  its 
necessary  result.  Whatever  could  be  said  in  support 
of  the  legislation  of  1887,  of  1890,  and  of  1906,  when 
it  was  enacted,  it  is  plain  that  the  interest  of  the 
public,  including  both  shippers  and  consumers,  re- 
quires something  different  now.  The  transportation 
system  of  the  country  has  been  crippled  at  the  mo- 
ment of  the  country's  greatest  need,  not  because  of 
anything  that  the  railway  companies  themselves  have 
done,  but  because  of  what  they  have  been  prevented 
by  law  from  doing.  The  overlapping  and  the  con- 
flict of  State  and  federal  regulation,  and  the  steady 
rise  in  the  cost  of  labor  and  of  materials  without  any 
corresponding  increase  in  rates,  have  literally  impov- 
erished the  greatest  railway  systems  in  the  world. 
They  have  been  unable  to  develop  adequate  terminal 
facilities  or  to  keep  their  permanent  way,  their  mo- 
tive power,  and  their  rolling  stock  in  first-class  con- 
dition and  adequate  to  the  country's  business.  Their 
credit  has  been  injured  to  such  an  extent  that  as  a 
war  measure  the  country  will  find  itself  absolutely 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  57 

compelled  to  expend  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  of 
money  drawn  from  the  taxpayers  to  do,  when  it  is 
almost  too  late,  what  the  railways  themselves  would 
gladly  have  done  at  their  own  cost  and  greatly  to  the 
public  advantage,  had  not  their  credit  been  so  seriously 
impaired  by  public  action.  Under  the  war  powers  of 
the  President,  much  of  the  restrictive  and  harmful 
legislation  relating  to  railways  has  been  swept  aside, 
at  least  temporarily.  Let  us  hope  that  it  will  never 
again  be  allowed  to  work  public  injury. 

Transportation  within  a  State  and  throughout  the 
United  States  has  become  so  single  a  problem  that  the 
continued  attempt  to  apply  several  sets  of  laws,  State 
and  federal,  to  its  regulation  can  only  produce  con- 
flict of  authority,  embarrassment  in  railway  operation, 
and  inconvenience  and  cost  to  the  public.  The  entire 
transportation  system  of  the  country  has,  by  force  of 
events,  become  national.  The  time  has  come  when  it 
should  be  put  under  exclusive  federal  supervision  and 
control  and  when  its  problems  should  be  dealt  with 
not  in  a  spirit  of  antagonism  and  repression,  but  in  one 
of  constructive  and  sympathetic  helpfulness  toward 
what  have  been  truly  described  as  the  arteries  of  the 
nation's  economic  life.  National  ownership  and  na- 
tional operation  of  the  railway  systems,  as  have  been 
proposed,  would  revolutionize  our  government  to  its 
grave  disadvantage  and  overturn  the  basis  on  which 
our  economic  and  business  life  rests.  Such  policies 
would  soon  reduce  our  railways  to  the  level  of  those 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  would  constitute  a 


58  A  PROGRAMME 

policy  not  of  progress  but  of  reaction.  Some  of  the 
largest  human  experience  and  some  of  the  best  human 
skill  in  the  United  States  are  to  be  found  in  the  service 
of  the  great  transportation  systems.  They  should  be 
fostered  and  developed  by  national  co-operation  and 
national  oversight  as  one  of  the  very  greatest  of  the 
country's  assets  in  peace  and  in  war  alike. 

Transportation  by  sea,  in  which  the  United  States 
has  lagged  far  behind  for  two  generations,  and  the 
problem  of  a  mercantile  marine,  have  taken  on  a 
wholly  new  aspect  because  of  the  war.  The  appalling 
destruction  of  the  world's  tonnage,  coupled  with  the 
necessity  of  conveying  huge  amounts  of  supplies  by 
water  from  one  Allied  nation  to  another,  have  stimu- 
lated shipbuilding  to  an  unheard-of  degree.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  the  United  States  will  probably  be  in 
possession  of  a  great  fleet  of  merchant  vessels,  and  will 
so  regain  the  prestige  that  was  lost  sixty  years  ago. 
The  country  stands  in  dire  need,  however,  of  schools 
of  naval  architecture  and  construction  and  of  schools 
for  the  training  of  seamen  and  their  officers  to  navigate 
these  ships.  The  necessities  of  the  situation  will  stim- 
ulate all  these,  but  they  should  be  regarded  as  arising 
to  satisfy  permanent,  and  not  merely  temporary, 
needs. 

5.  Quickened  public  intelligence  and  enlightened 
public  conscience  are  moving  steadily  throughout  the 
world  toward  a  fuller  appreciation  of  man's  obligation 
to  his  fellow  and  of  society's  responsibility  for  the 
unfortunate,  the  dependent,  and  the  unemployed. 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  59 

These  are  not,  as  is  often  taught,  problems  of  a  class 
or  for  a  class;  they  are  problems  of  and  for  a  true 
democracy  inspired  by  human  kindliness  and  human 
sympathy.  The  problem  of  production  or  work  is 
not  adequately  stated  in  terms  of  capital  and  labor. 
The  problem  of  production  is  a  human  problem,  and 
the  man  who  works  with  his  hands,  the  man  who 
works  with  his  head,  and  the  man  who  works  with 
his  just  accumulations,  are  the  three  different  elements 
that  enter  into  it.  They  are  so  closely  related  that 
they  often  overlap  each  other.  To  regard  any  one  of 
these  co-operating  elements  as  standing  apart  from 
the  others  and  in  antagonism  to  them  is  simply  to  fail 
to  grasp  the  facts.  All  three  co-operating  factors  in 
production  have  an  economic,  and  each  should  have  a 
human,  interest  in  the  product.  The  shortened  hours 
of  labor,  the  substantial  increase  in  wages,  the  better 
sanitary  and  protective  conditions  that  are  everywhere 
being  introduced  to  make  labor  safe  and  to  guard 
against  occupational  disease,  are  long  steps  forward  in 
the  humanizing  of  production. 

There  is  another  step  yet  to  be  taken  which  it  seems 
likely  will  be  hastened  by  the  war.  The  mental  atti- 
tude of  the  man  who  works  with  his  just  accumulations 
must  be  changed  so  far  as  to  put  production  for  use 
or  for  enjoyment  in  the  place  of  production  for  mere 
profit.  Production  for  profit  alone  is  plainly  an  in- 
human undertaking;  it  can  and  does  close  its  eyes 
to  human  exploitation,  to  human  suffering,  and  to 
human  want.  Production  for  use  and  for  enjoyment, 


60  A  PROGRAMME 

on  the  other  hand,  lays  all  possible  stress  upon  human 
satisfactions. 

Perhaps  no  one  could  have  predicted  that  the  war 
would  have  gone  far  toward  putting  this  larger  and 
finer  and  more  democratic  view  of  production  in  the 
place  of  that  which  has  prevailed  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury; yet  that  is  precisely  what  is  happening.  When 
we  think  in  terms  of  war,  we  at  once  think  in  terms  of 
human  protection  and  of  human  satisfaction.  We 
make  instant  provision  for  illness  and  for  dependent 
old  age.  When  we  think  in  terms  of  peace,  however, 
we  have  been  more  than  reluctant  to  face  the  fact  that 
in  a  state  of  peace  the  social  waste  and  the  social  dis- 
eases due  to  illness,  to  unemployment,  and  to  dependent 
old  age  are  both  constant  and  very  large.  As  a  people 
we  have  yet  to  begin  to  deal  effectively  and  in  a  large 
way  with  overwork,  with  under-pay,  with  bad  housing, 
and  with  industrial  disease.  What  war  is  teaching 
us  in  regard  to  all  these  matters  must  not  be  lost  sight 
of  when  war  gives  way  to  a  durable  peace. 

We  have  in  the  United  States  an  almost  limitless 
amount  of  individual  efficiency,  but  in  social  efficiency 
we  have  lagged  far  behind.  This  has  not  been  due  to 
lack  of  ability  or  to  lack  of  material,  but  to  lack  of  an 
impelling  and  dominating  social  ideal.  Even  this  war 
is  a  blessing  in  disguise  if  it  brings  us  that  ideal  and 
makes  it  permanent. 

6.  The  business  of  national  government  has  become 
so  huge  and  so  complex  that  the  sharp  separation  of  the 
executive  and  the  legislative  powers  to  which  we  have 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  61 

been  accustomed  for  one  hundred  and  forty  years  is 
now  distinctly  disadvantageous.  It  brings  in  its  train 
lack  of  coherence  and  of  continuity  in  public  policy;  it 
conceals  from  the  people  much  that  they  should  know; 
and  it  prevents  effective  and  quick  co-operation  be- 
tween the  Congress  and  the  Executive  Departments, 
both  in  times  of  emergency  and  in  the  conduct  of  the 
ordinary  business  of  government.  There  is  a  way 
to  overcome  these  embarrassments  and  difficulties 
without  in  any  way  altering  the  form  of  our  govern- 
ment or  breaking  down  the  wise  safeguards  which  the 
Constitution  contains.  That  is  to  provide  by  law, 
as  may  be  done  very  simply,  that  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  shall  be  entitled  to  occupy  seats  on  the  floor 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  with  the 
right  to  participate  in  debate  on  matters  relating  to 
the  business  of  their  several  departments,  under  such 
rules  as  the  Senate  and  House  respectively  may  pre- 
scribe. Such  an  act  should  further  provide  that  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  must  attend  sessions  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  at  designated 
times,  in  order  to  give  information  asked  by  resolution 
or  to  reply  to  questions  which  may  be  propounded  to 
them  under  the  rules  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

Had  such  a  provision  been  in  force  during  the  past 
generation  the  nation  would  have  been  spared  many 
an  unhappy  and  misleading  controversy.  What  has 
sometimes  been  made  public  only  after  the  labor  and 
cost  of  an  elaborate  investigation  by  committee,  might 


62  A  PROGRAMME 

have  been  had  without  delay  through  the  medium 
of  questions  put  to  a  Cabinet  officer  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  or  the  House  of  Representatives.  No 
feature  of  British  Parliamentary  practice  is  more  use- 
ful, or  contributes  more  to  a  public  understanding  of 
what  the  executive  is  doing,  than  the  proceedings  at 
question-time  in  the  House  of  Commons.  A  Cabinet 
officer  is  in  a  much  more  dignified  position  if  he  is 
permitted  to  answer  questions  as  to  his  official  con- 
duct and  business  on  the  floor  of  a  legislative  body 
and  to  make  his  reply  part  of  the  public  record,  than 
if  he  is  interrogated  in  a  committee-room  as  an  inci- 
dent in  some  general  inquiry.  Perhaps  no  single  step 
would  do  as  much  as  this  to  restore  public  interest  in 
Congressional  debates,  to  promote  administrative 
efficiency,  and  to  bring  about  a  just  and  proper  inti- 
macy between  the  legislative  representatives  of  the 
people  and  the  people's  chief  executive  agents. 

This  is  not  a  new  question,  or  one  unsupported  by 
high  authority;  but  unfortunately  it  had  never  been 
pressed  to  a  successful  issue.  The  classic  document 
on  the  subject  is  the  report  of  a  select  committee  sub- 
mitted to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  on  February 
4,  1881.  That  report  accompanied  and  discussed  a 
bill  containing  the  provisions  just  mentioned,  and  also 
outlined  certain  rules  to  be  adopted  by  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives  in  order  to  make  the 
provisions  of  the  proposed  bill  effective.  This  report 
was  a  unanimous  one  and  was  signed  by  senators  be- 
longing to  each  of  the  two  great  political  parties.  They 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  63 

are  men  whose  names  carry  great  weight.  The  sig- 
natures are  those  of  Senators  Pendleton  of  Ohio,  Al- 
lison of  Iowa,  Voorhees  of  Indiana,  Elaine  of  Maine, 
Butler  of  South  Carolina,  Ingalls  of  Kansas,  Platt  of 
Connecticut,  and  Farley  of  California. 

The  bill  which  those  senators  reported  thirty-seven 
years  ago  should  now  be  revived  and  enacted.  Their 
report  discussed  in  elaborate  detail  both  the  advan- 
tages of  the  proposed  measure  and  the  possible  ob- 
jections to  it,  including  those  which  might  be  raised 
on  Constitutional  grounds.  That  representative  com- 
mittee argued  with  convincing  force  that  if,  by  a  line 
of  precedents  since  the  organization  of  the  govern- 
ment, the  Congress  has  established  its  power  to  re- 
quire the  heads  of  departments  to  report  to  it  directly, 
and  also  its  power  to  admit  persons  to  the  floor  of  either 
house  to  address  it,  it  would  seem  to  be  perfectly  clear 
that  the  Congress  may  require  the  report  to  be  made 
or  the  information  to  be  given  by  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments on  the  floor  of  the  houses,  publicly  and  orally. 

Were  such  a  custom  to  be  established  an  almost 
certain  result  would  be  the  selection  as  heads  of  the 
great  executive  departments  of  men  of  large  ability 
and  personal  force,  men  able  to  explain  and  to  defend 
their  policies  and  measures  before  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  in  the  face  of  the  whole  country. 
It  would  also  follow  that  the  nation's  legislature  would 
be  enabled  to  exercise  a  more  intelligent  and  a  more 
effective  control  over  the  executive  departments  than 
is  now  the  case,  as  well  as  to  render  them  more  in- 


64  A  PROGRAMME 

telligent  and  more  effective  aid  in  the  form  both  of  ap- 
propriations and  of  positive  law. 

Nothing  would  appear  to  stand  in  the  way  of  this 
most  desirable  advance  except  our  national  political 
inertia,  which  always  serves  as  a  powerful  obstacle 
to  proposed  political  reforms.  At  the  present  mo- 
ment, when  the  nation  is  making  an  unprecedented 
effort  and  when  Congress  is  providing  for  loans  and 
for  taxes  that  are  colossal  in  amount,  and  when  new 
problems  of  far-reaching  importance  are  constantly 
arising,  it  would  be  an  inestimable  public  advantage 
were  such  a  relation  between  the  heads  of  the  executive 
departments  and  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  already 
established  and  in  force. 

7.  If  there  is  to  be  better  and  closer  co-operation 
between  the  executive  and  the  legislative  departments 
of  the  government,  and  if  that  co-operation  is  to  re- 
sult in  the  largest  practicable  public  benefit,  there 
should  be  no  further  delay  in  agreeing  upon  a  national 
budget  system.  The  arguments  for  a  budget  have 
been  presented  many  times  and  they  are  as  convinc- 
ing as  they  are  familiar.  The  platform  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  adopted  at  St.  Louis  in  1916  and  the 
platform  of  the  Republican  party  adopted  at  Chicago 
in  the  same  year,  both  declare  explicitly  for  a  budget 
system.  It  is  hard  to  see  why  there  should  be  any 
time  lost  in  introducing  it  into  the  operations  of  our 
national  government  in  view  of  the  great  advantages 
that  must  certainly  follow. 

In  our  form  of  government  the  Congress  is  made 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  65 

responsible  for  determining  what  work  the  govern- 
ment shall  undertake,  what  form  of  executive  organiza- 
tion shall  be  established  to  carry  on  this  work,  and 
what  amount  of  public  funds  shall  be  provided  in  gen- 
eral and  in  detail  for  the  operations  of  the  government, 
as  well  as  how  those  funds  shall  be  raised.  Since  no 
money  may  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  but  in  con- 
sequence of  appropriations  made  by  law,  a  proper 
budget  becomes  the  instrument  of  legislative  control 
over  the  public  administration.  It  is  for  Congress  to 
determine  what  shall  and  what  shall  not  be  done,  what 
shall  and  what  shall  not  be  undertaken.  All  experience 
proves  that  if  what  is  to  be  done  is  decided  in  haphazard 
and  desultory  fashion,  or  in  response  to  the  unco-ordi- 
nated  recommendations  of  a  hundred  different  ad- 
ministrative officers,  there  will  be  waste,  duplication 
of  effort,  and  ineffectiveness.  To  escape  these  and  to 
enable  the  Congress  and  the  country  to  hold  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  administration  directly  and  fairly  ac- 
countable for  public  policies,  alike  of  omission  and  of 
commission,  the  President  should  himself  be  called 
upon  to  present  each  year  to  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives a  definite  and  well-analyzed  estimate  of  those 
proposed  expenditures  which  the  administration  wishes 
to  support  and  to  make  its  own.  It  should  be  within 
the  power  of  the  Congress  to  reduce  or  to  strike  out 
any  of  the  items  of  this  proposed  expenditure,  but  the 
Congress  should  voluntarily  relinquish  or  hold  in  abey- 
ance— as  it  might  readily  do  by  a  joint  rule — its  con- 
stitutional power  to  increase  or  to  add  to  these  items. 


66  A  PROGRAMME 

Moreover,  the  President  should  explicitly  recommend 
the  ways  in  which  the  moneys  necessary  to  meet  the 
proposed  appropriations  are  to  be  raised.  If  the  Con- 
gress accepts  these  recommendations,  it  makes  the 
policy  of  the  administration  its  own;  if  it  departs  from 
them,  then  the  Congress  publicly  and  of  record  as- 
sumes the  responsibility.  This  makes  for  publicity 
of  action  and  for  responsible  democratic  government. 

Everything  of  importance  relating  to  a  national 
budget  is  to  be  found  in  the  report  of  the  Commission 
on  Economy  and  Efficiency  presented  to  the  second 
session  of  the  Sixty-second  Congress,  on  June  27,  1912. 
Happenings  since  that  time  have  only  served  to 
strengthen  the  arguments  that  were  used  in  that  re- 
port. If  the  Congress  is  really  to  understand  what 
the  President  and  his  administration  wish  to  do  and 
how  they  wish  to  do  it,  and  if  the  people  are  to  be  in 
a  position  to  hold  the  President  and  the  Congress  re- 
sponsible for  their  several  acts  and  policies,  there  must 
be  established  a  national  budget  prepared  and  recom- 
mended by  the  chief  executive.  Every  year's  delay 
in  bringing  this  about  increases  governmental  con- 
fusion, inefficiency,  and  extravagance,  and  postpones 
the  possibility  of  a  simpler,  a  better-balanced,  and  a 
more  effective  administration  of  the  public  business. 

8.  As  the  result  of  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  of 
development  and  of  a  civil  war  which  absorbed  the 
entire  energies  of  the  people  through  four  long  years, 
the  governmental  and  the  geographic  unity  of  the 
United  States  are  secure.  It  is  not  by  any  means 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  67 

so  clear  that  there  is  a  corresponding  unity  of  spirit, 
of  purpose,  and  of  ideals  among  the  American  people 
themselves.  Those  differences  among  men  which 
separate  them  into  political  parties  having  different 
policies  but  a  common  point  of  departure  and  a 
common  goal,  are  merely  incidental  and  strengthen 
rather  than  weaken  national  unity.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  within  the  nation  forces  and  tendencies 
making  for  conflicts  and  antagonisms  as  to  the  funda- 
mental purposes  for  which  the  nation  and  its  govern- 
ment exist,  then  there  is  something  to  be  done  and 
that  right  away. 

The  war  has  brought  clearly  to  view  the  fact  that 
national  unity  is  endangered,  not  only  by  illiteracy, 
which  fact  has  long  been  recognized,  but  by  diversity 
of  language  with  its  resulting  lack  of  complete  under- 
standing and  co-operation.  No  country  can  have  a 
homogeneous  or  a  safe  basis  for  its  public  opinion  and 
its  institutions  unless  these  rest  upon  the  foundation 
of  a  single  language.  To  protect  the  national  unity 
and  security  no  American  community  should  be  per- 
mitted to  substitute  any  other  language  for  English 
as  the  basis  or  instrument  of  common  school  educa- 
tion. Wherever  another  language  has  been  introduced 
into  the  common  schools,  whether  for  conscious  propa- 
ganda or  otherwise,  it  should  be  ruthlessly  stamped 
out  as  a  wrong  against  our  national  unity  and  our  na- 
tional integrity. 

No  time  should  be  lost  in  making  adequate  pro- 
vision to  teach  English  to  those  adult  immigrants  who 


68  A   PROGRAMME 

are  beyond  the  reach  of  the  elementary  school  and  yet 
have  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  A  knowledge  of  the  English  language  and 
evidence  of  some  real  understanding  of  the  history  and 
meaning  of  our  institutions,  should  be  required  before 
the  privilege  of  suffrage  is  conferred  upon  one  who  has 
grown  up  in  another  civilization  than  ours  and  under 
another  flag  than  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Public  safety 
is  the  supreme  law,  and  public  safety  requires  that 
the  safeguarding  and  the  improvement  of  our  insti- 
tutions be  not  committed  to  those  who  have  had  no 
opportunity  to  gain  knowledge  of  them  or  to  gain  sym- 
pathy with  them. 

A  still  more  subtle  enemy  of  the  American  democ- 
racy is  the  wide-spread  teaching  that  there  is  and 
should  be  a  class  struggle  between  those  who  have 
little  and  those  who  have  more,  between  those  who 
work  with  their  hands  and  those  who  work  in  other 
ways.  The  notion  of  fixed  economic  classes  that  are 
at  war  with  each  other  is  in  flat  contradiction  to  the 
principles  and  ideals  of  democracy.  The  doctrine  of 
a  class  conflict  was  made  in  Germany,  and  it  represents 
a  notion  of  social  and  political  organization  wholly  at 
variance  with  the  principles  and  conditions  of  our 
American  life.  In  this  country  we  have  no  fixed  eco- 
nomic classes  and  we  desire  none.  The  handworker 
for  wages  of  to-day  is  the  employer  of  to-morrow,  and 
the  door  of  opportunity  is  so  wide  open  that  he  who 
begins  in  industrial,  commercial,  or  financial  service 
at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  may  by  competence  and 


OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PROGRESS  69 

character  speedily  climb  to  its  very  top.  Those  who 
teach  the  justice  and  the  necessity  of  a  class  struggle 
are  not  believers  in  democracy.  They  do  not  wish 
to  lift  all  men  up;  they  are  bent  upon  pulling  some 
men  down.  Their  programme  is  one  of  destruction 
not  construction,  of  reaction  not  progress.  They  do 
not  believe  in  the  equality  of  men  before  the  law  and 
in  the  equality  of  opportunity  for  all  men  and  all 
women;  they  believe  in  a  cruel,  relentless,  exploiting 
class.  In  other  words,  they  believe  in  privilege  and 
not  in  free  government.  Class  consciousness  and 
democracy  are  mutually  exclusive.  Its  logical  and 
necessary  result  would  be  to  tear  up  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  to  destroy  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  put  in  their  stead  a  Charter  of 
Bedlam  under  whose  provisions  might,  and  might 
alone,  would  make  right.  Every  movement  and  every 
effort  to  this  end  should  be  challenged  peremptorily 
in  the  name  of  the  American  people,  their  traditions, 
and  their  ideals.  It  is  as  vitally  important  to  oppose 
autocracy  in  this  form  as  when  it  comes  clad  in  im- 
perial robes  and  accompanied  with  all  the  instruments 
of  militarism. 

No  scheme  of  government  and  no  social  order  can 
abolish  every  human  ill.  Certain  of  these  ills  are 
hardships  which  accompany  human  life;  they  are  part 
of  the  order  of  nature  and  for  them  we  cannot  blame 
our  fellow  men.  All  that  we  can  hope  to  do  is  to  allevi- 
ate them  and  to  do  what  lies  in  our  power  to  surmount 
them.  There  are  certain  other  human  ills  that  arise 


70  A  PROGRAMME 

directly  from  the  imperfections  or  errors  of  our  civil 
and  economic  institutions.  These  ills  we  must  labor 
to  remove  by  the  remedy  of  those  imperfections  and 
by  the  correction  of  those  errors. 

All  these  are  problems  which  lie  directly  in  front  of 
us  and  which  we  cannot  escape.  We  may,  if  we  are  so 
minded,  drift  on  the  tide  of  daily  happenings  and  trust 
that  these  grave  problems  will  solve  themselves.  Or 
we  may,  if  we  are  wiser  and  feel  heavier  responsibility 
for  the  conduct  of  our  government,  face  these  prob- 
lems with  resolute  determination  to  have  them  speedily 
discussed  and  satisfactorily  solved.  It  is  hard  enough 
to  bring  our  vast  population  to  the  active  considera- 
tion of  even  a  single  new  political  or  economic  question, 
to  say  nothing  of  half  a  score  of  them.  Yet  these  are 
unusual  times.  Men  are  casting  off  some  of  their  old 
trammels  and  encumbrances.  The  people  are  better 
informed  and  more  keenly  interested  in  the  details  of 
public  and  economic  life  than  they  have  been  since 
the  Civil  War.  The  opportunity  invites  the  American 
people  to  enter  without  delay  upon  a  new  and  splendid 
path  of  real  progress.  Will  they  accept  it  ? 


IV 

THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
Columbia  University,  October  13,  1919 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  stood  in  one  of  the  geyser  basins 
of  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  and  watched  scores 
of  openings  in  the  earth's  surface  through  which  gas 
and  steam  and  bubbling  waters  were  escaping.  The 
setting  was  superb.  Great  mountains  raised  their 
seared  and  rugged  peaks  high  toward  heaven;  thou- 
sands of  acres  of  unharmed  forest,  and  a  beauty  of 
sky  and  exhilaration  of  air  only  to  be  found  at  a  great 
elevation  remote  from  the  haunts  of  men,  gave  to  the 
scene  a  beauty  and  a  grandeur  all  its  own.  Men  and 
women  were  coming  and  going  rilled  with  the  joy  of 
life,  each  one  intent  upon  refreshing  himself  by  con- 
tact with  nature  at  its  best.  The  query  came  naturally 
to  one's  lips,  Can  all  this  beauty  and  satisfaction  last  ? 
May  it  not  be  that  some  day  the  hidden  and  heated 
forces  of  destruction  that  lie  under  the  earth's  crust, 
and  that  here  come  so  close  to  the  surface,  will  burst 
forth  with  irresistible  power  and  overwhelm  both  the 
works  and  the  satisfactions  of  men  and  the  beauties 
of  nature  ? 

A  like  query  must  find  its  way  to  the  lips  of  every 
thoughtful  man  who  takes  serious  note  of  what  is 
going  on  in  the  world.  At  no  earlier  time  since  re- 
corded history  began  have  the  pleasures  and  the  satis- 

73 


74       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

factions  of  life  been  so  numerous,  so  easily  obtained, 
or  so  widely  distributed.  At  no  earlier  time  have  the 
high  aims  and  the  strivings  of  men  been  so  generally 
accomplished  or  set  so  far  on  the  road  toward  accom- 
plishment. Yet  from  numberless  openings  in  the 
crust  of  the  political  and  economic  world  on  which 
we  live  there  are  coming  constant  signs,  explosions 
growing  more  numerous  and  louder,  which  mark  the 
presence  of  hidden  and  heated  forces  of  destruction 
that  may  one  day  burst  forth  and  destroy  civilization. 
So  many  and  so  manifest  are  the  evidences  of  this 
possibility,  so  emphatic  and  so  wide-spread  are  the 
warnings  of  the  presence  of  powerful  forces  of  destruc- 
tion, so  constant  and  so  manifold  are  acts  in  contempt 
alike  of  law  and  of  social  obligation,  that  we  can  only 
wonder  at  the  levity  of  those  who  go  their  daily  way 
without  stopping  even  to  reflect  whether  they  may 
have  any  daily  way  to  go  a  short  time  hence. 

The  situation  which  confronts  us,  and  which  is 
perhaps  even  more  marked  in  Great  Britain  and  in 
Italy  than  in  the  United  States,  is  roughly  and  gener- 
ally, though  inaccurately,  described  as  the  industrial 
or  labor  problem.  There  is  much  more  to  it  than  that. 
It  includes  questions  which  go  to  the  very  foundation 
of  civil  society  and  national  existence. 

Thanks  to  the  harmful  dominance  of  some  settled 
formulas,  this  problem  has  usually  been  presented  to 
us  as  a  contest  between  Capital  and  Labor  over  the 
product  and  rewards  of  industrial  organization  and 
activity.  Since  the  word  Capital  is  held  to  signify 


TEE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       75 

those  fortunate  ones  who  have  been  able  to  save,  and 
the  word  Labor  is  held  to  signify  those  less  fortunate 
ones  who  have  not  yet  been  able  to  save,  public  sym- 
pathy has  been,  with  substantial  uniformity,  on  the 
side  of  Labor  in  every  such  contest.  Sympathy  with 
the  plight  of  the  under-dog  is  well-nigh  universal. 
For  a  full  half-century  the  successive  steps  that  have 
been  taken  to  organize  hand-workers  to  gain  for  them- 
selves the  privilege  and  the  advantage  of  collective 
bargaining,  to  secure  less  severe  hours  and  more 
healthful  conditions  of  employment,  and  generally  to 
increase  their  opportunities  and  their  satisfactions, 
have  commanded  the  increasing  support  and  approval 
of  the  great  mass  of  civilized  men. 

This  has  often  been  true  even  when  the  steps  taken 
to  bring  about  these  advances  and  improvements  have 
been  in  themselves  rude,  selfish,  and  destructive  alike 
of  the  public  order  and  the  public  weal.  As  a  conse- 
quence, the  condition  of  hand-workers  has  greatly  and 
steadily  improved.  At  no  point  in  the  complicated 
social  and  industrial  system  of  modern  times  has  so 
great  personal  and  group  advantage  been  reaped  from 
the  changes  of  the  past  generation  as  among  the  hand- 
workers. The  rewards  of  invested  savings  or  capital 
have  steadily  declined,  while  the  lot  of  that  immense 
fraction  of  the  population  which  receives  salaries  rather 
than  wages  has  grown  constantly  more  difficult.  Of 
the  present  population  of  the  United  States  perhaps 
one-sixth,  almost  certainly  one-seventh,  is  made  up 
of  persons  in  receipt  of  salaries  and  those  immediately 


76  THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

dependent  upon  them.  These  persons  may  be  in  a 
small  way  capitalists,  and  in  a  very  large  way  hand- 
workers, but  they  are  not  usually  classed  with  either 
Capital  or  Labor,  but  are  rather  expected  to  remain 
acquiescent  spectators  of  a  struggle  from  whose  out- 
come they  cannot  possibly  reap  anything  but  dis- 
advantage. 

Matters  were  at  about  this  point  when  the  storm  of 
war  broke  over  the  world.  More  or  less  quickly,  and 
in  some  cases  even  with  considerable  difficulty,  old- 
time  ideals  such  as  love  of  liberty,  patriotism,  and  zeal 
to  defend  the  weak  against  attack  by  the  strong,  over- 
rode the  obstacles  to  national  effort  and  international 
co-operation  which  the  economic  and  industrial  strug- 
gle would  otherwise  have  created.  Because  of  the 
free  world's  lack  of  preparation  for  the  attack  made 
upon  it,  the  war  had  to  be  carried  on  at  immense  cost. 
This  immense  cost,  together  with  the  constant  pressure 
of  war  emergencies,  entailed  not  only  waste  but  colossal 
extravagance.  These  in  turn  led  to  an  unhealthy  ex- 
pansion of  credit  and  an  undue  inflation  of  currency. 
Prices  quickly  rose  and  money,  or  tokens  of  money, 
became  relatively  more  plentiful  than  either  goods  or 
services.  When  the  storm  of  war  ceased  the  out- 
standing facts  throughout  the  world  were  the  high 
cost  of  living  and  the  inability  of  men  to  resume  their 
old  mode  of  life  at  the  old  compensations.  Quickly 
unrest  and  dissatisfaction  began  to  spread  like  a  con- 
tagious disease,  and  spreading  they  prepared  the  soil 
in  readiness  to  receive  any  unwholesome,  mad,  or  de- 


TEE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       77 

structive  political  seed  which  might  be  sown.  Those 
enemies  of  order,  of  liberty,  and  of  progress  who  are 
always  present,  and  who  seem  able  to  secure  an  amount 
of  public  attention  wholly  out  of  proportion  to  either 
their  ability  or  their  importance,  redoubled  their  ac- 
tivities and  have  been  openly  or  covertly  urging  social 
and  industrial  revolution  from  platform,  from  pulpit, 
and  from  press. 

The  result  of  all  these  manifestations  and  develop- 
ments is  that  what  used  to  be  called  the  labor  question 
or  the  industrial  problem  has  entirely  changed  its  form. 
The  real  labor  problem,  as  it  now  presents  itself  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  is  this: 

Can  the  nation's  industries  be  so  organized  and  ad- 
ministered as  to  bring  to  the  service  of  industry  the 
well-tested  principles  and  ideals  of  political  democracy, 
without  overturning  the  foundations  of  the  Republic 
and  without  destroying  the  only  guarantees  on  which 
order,  liberty,  and  progress  can  possibly  rest  ? 

The  problem,  therefore,  is  no  longer  purely  indus- 
trial or  wholly  economic;  the  course  of  events  has  made 
it,  in  large  part,  political  as  well.  Otherwise  stated  it 
is  this:  Must  the  American  form  of  government  com- 
mit suicide  in  order  to  give  to  industry  better  and  more 
satisfactory  organization  ?  Of  course  the  question  so 
put  answers  itself.  If  the  American  form  of  govern- 
ment commits  suicide,  it  will  make  no  difference  to 
any  one  whether  industry  is  better  organized  and  con- 
ducted or  not.  Chaos  will  have  come  again  and  the 
right  to  rule  men  will  be  fought  for  with  the  usual 


78       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

result.     Might  will  certainly  dethrone  right,  and  there 
will  be  only  darkness  where  now  there  is  light. 

There  is  a  close  parallel  between  some  recent  inter- 
national happenings  and  some  recent  industrial  hap- 
penings. The  air  is  filled  with  ultimatums.  One  voice 
asserts  that  unless  something  which  it  strongly  desires 
takes  place  within  twenty-four  hours,  society  will  be 
deprived  of  the  effective  use  of  one  of  its  great  indus- 
tries. Another  voice  cries  out  that  unless  something 
which  it  strongly  desires  takes  place  within  so  many 
days,  the  whole  transportation  system  of  a  great  city 
or  a  wide-spread  district  will  be  paralyzed.  The  strike 
in  the  steel  industry  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  what 
is  meant.  It  is  a  convincing  example  of  how  not  to 
deal  with  the  labor  problem.  The  steel  industry  in 
modern  life  is  basic.  All  transportation,  most  manu- 
facturing, and  a  very  large  part  of  the  nation's  build- 
ing depend  upon  the  supply  of  steel.  Therefore,  to 
stop  the  output  of  steel  for  any  reason  whatsoever  is 
to  strike  a  definite  and  dangerous  blow  at  the  whole 
industrial  organization  of  the  modern  state.  It  must 
result  in  compelling  wide-spread  unemployment  and  a 
noticeable  increase  in  the  already  high  cost  of  living. 
The  history  of  the  beginnings  of  the  steel  strike  read 
strangely  like  the  beginnings  of  the  European  war. 
The  ultimatums  of  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  and  of  Mr.  Foster 
might  well  have  been  written  by  Count  Berchtold, 
Chancellor  Bethmann-Hollweg,  or  Minister  von  Jagow. 
The  published  statements  associated  with  the  names 
of  each  of  these  gentlemen  are  alike  in  that  they  make 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       79 

no  appeal  whatsoever  to  right  or  to  justice,  but  simply 
give  notice  of  peremptory  demands  and  announce  that 
when  a  fixed  limit  of  time  expires  force  will  be  used  to 
support  the  demands.  When  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment presented  its  ultimatum  to  Serbia  on  July  25, 
1914,  the  world  was  shocked.  But  the  same  world 
did  not  appear  to  realize  that  the  ultimatums  of  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick  and  Mr.  Foster  had  in  them  far  more  seeds 
of  danger  both  to  America  and  to  Europe,  to  liberty 
and  to  the  rights  of  the  weak,  as  well  as  to  the  wage- 
workers  themselves,  than  did  the  Austrian  ultimatum 
to  Serbia.  The  ultimatums  issued  by  Mr.  Fitzpatrick 
and  Mr.  Foster  were  not  a  sincere  and  necessary  step 
toward  improving  the  condition  of  wage-workers  in 
the  steel  industry,  but  were  part  of  a  new,  carefully 
thought-out,  and  thoroughly  well-planned  attack  on 
the  principles  upon  which  the  American  people  have 
rested  their  government,  their  civilization,  and  their 
life.  They  were  a  declaration  of  war  for  power  and 
the  beginning  of  an  attempt  to  compel  the  people  and 
the  government  to  enter  upon  a  strange  and  wholly 
un-American  public  policy  without  deliberation  or  de- 
bate and  under  threat  of  industrial  war  and  economic 
destruction.  The  Austrians  and  the  Germans  fought 
their  war  with  different  weapons,  but  the  war  that  has 
been  organized  by  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  and  Mr.  Foster, 
and  the  similar  wars  that  were  organized  in  Great 
Britain  by  Mr.  Smillie  and  Mr.  Thomas,  are  many 
times  more  dangerous  than  the  Austrian  ultimatum  to 
Serbia  or  the  German  invasion  of  Belgium.  The  very 


8o       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

principles  for  which  we  have  been  fighting  on  so  huge 
a  scale  with  military  weapons  are  now  at  stake  in  the 
contest  to  be  waged  with  economic  forces  and  with 
ideas. 

The  question  inevitably  suggests  itself,  Why  are  we 
so  much  concerned  with  the  prevention  of  future  inter- 
national wars  or  with  decreasing  their  likelihood,  and 
why  are  we  apparently  so  indifferent  to  the  question 
of  preventing  industrial  wars  ?  Industrial  wars  can  do 
quite  as  much  damage  as  international  wars,  huge  as  is 
the  burden  of  destruction  which  the  latter  have  to 
carry.  In  the  case  of  international  war  we  are  all 
pretty  much  convinced  that  while  the  ultimate  use  of 
force  in  extreme  cases  cannot  be  dispensed  with,  yet  a 
very  large  area  heretofore  occupied  by  force  may  be 
given  over  to  the  control  of  reasonableness  in  the  hope 
that  eventually  the  habit  of  being  reasonable  will  dis- 
place the  habit  of  appealing  to  force  in  order  to  settle 
differences  between  nations.  It  is  along  this  path  that 
progress  has  been  making  for  some  generations  past, 
and  it  is  along  this  path  that  future  progress  will  most 
hopefully  be  made.  Why  should  not  the  same  general 
attitude  of  mind  that  we  have  agreed  to  adopt  regard- 
ing international  war  serve  us  as  we  approach  the 
question  of  preventing  industrial  war  ?  In  the  field  of 
industry,  as  in  the  field  of  international  ambition, 
might  can  only  be  dispossessed  if  right  be  called  in  to 
take  its  place.  Unless  justice  can  rule,  force  must 
control.  There  is  no  alternative. 

When  we  begin  the  application  of  the  test  of  reason- 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       81 

ablenes*  to  matters  of  industry,  we  come  straightway 
upon  the  damage  done  by  misleading  words,  phrases, 
and  formulas.  For  this  damage  we  rightly  have  a 
grudge  against  the  writers  on  economics,  both  classical 
and  socialist,  most  of  whom  have  discussed  the  inti- 
mate and  highly  practical  questions  of  modern  industry 
without  either  the  specific  information  or  the  personal 
experience  which  enabled  them  to  know  precisely  what 
their  words  and  phrases  meant.  They  have  usually 
begun  with  an  analysis  of  wealth,  whereas  the  primary 
economic  fact  is  not  wealth  but  work — work  in  its 
psychological  and  ethical  as  well  as  its  economic  aspects. 
Perhaps  the  starting-point  of  the  difficulty  is  to  be 
found  in  the  sharp  antithesis  that  exists  between  Cap- 
ital and  Labor,  not  only  in  the  mind  of  the  general 
public  but  even  in  that  of  those  who  are  actively  en- 
gaged in  productive  industry.  So  long  as  we  speak  of 
Capital  and  Labor  as  mere  abstractions,  struggling  in 
some  invisible  way  over  the  division  of  the  product  of 
industry,  we  not  only  get  nowhere  but  we  assist  actively 
in  spreading  wholly  false  economic  views.  We  give 
ground  for  the  notion,  very  wide-spread  among  wage- 
workers,  but  utterly  false,  that  the  less  work  they  do 
in  a  given  time  or  for  a  given  wage  the  better  for  them- 
selves and  for  their  group.  Under  such  a  theory  each 
increase  in  wages  must  directly  increase  the  cost  of 
living  for  every  one,  including  those  who  get  the  in- 
creased wages.  In  this  way  there  is  quickly  established 
an  endless  chain  of  economic  fallacies  that  will  in  time 
bring  disaster  to  any  industry  or  any  people. 


82       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  abandon  our  fondness  for 
abstractions  and  look  at  any  industrial  process  just  as 
it  is,  we  quickly  discover  that  it  is  an  enterprise  in 
human  co-operation,  and  that  in  it  there  may  be  and 
usually  are  three  different  kinds  or  sorts  of  co-operating 
human  beings — those  who  work  with  their  hands, 
those  who  work  with  their  brains,  and  those  who  work 
with  their  savings.  These  are  all  alike  essential  to 
productive  industry,  and  production  is  the  joint  enter- 
prise in  which  all  are  engaged  in  common.  In  the  case 
of  the  steel  industry,  for  instance,  a  skilled  employee 
in  a  rolling-mill  who  has  bought  some  of  the  stock  of 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  represents  in  his 
own  person  all  three  kinds  of  co-operating  influence. 
He  works  alike  with  his  hands,  with  his  brains,  and 
with  his  savings.  This  is  an  almost  ideal  condition 
and  one  which  we  should  strive  to  make  just  as  univer- 
sal as  possible.  If  industry,  then,  whether  it  be  the 
mining  of  coal,  or  the  transportation  of  freight,  or  the 
cutting  and  sawing  and  trimming  of  timber,  or  the 
packing  of  salmon,  or  the  manufacture  of  paper  from 
wood-pulp,  or  the  spinning,  dyeing,  weaving,  and  print- 
ing of  cotton,  is  truly  an  enterprise  in  co-operative  pro- 
duction, it  follows  that  every  co-operating  agency  is 
directly  interested  both  in  the  quantity  and  the  quality 
of  the  product.  The  greater  the  product  per  unit  of 
occupation,  the  less  the  overhead  charge  and  so  much 
more  the  amount  available  to  pay  a  satisfactory  wage, 
to  meet  the  prevailing  rate  of  interest,  and  to  provide 
a  reasonable  margin  of  profit  as  well  as  to  take  care  of 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM  83 

normal  depreciation  and  repairs.  If  the  wage-earner 
can  be  led  to  understand  that  his  wages  are  paid  out 
of  product  and  not  out  of  capital  or  out  of  profits,  he 
will  speedily  assist  in  increasing  production,  because 
he  will  understand  that  only  in  that  way  is  it  possi- 
ble to  provide  for  any  permanent  increase  in  wages. 
Again,  just  so  soon  as  the  wage-earner  is  led  to  see  the 
truth  of  the  fact  that  he  and  the  man  who  works  with 
his  savings,  the  so-called  capitalist,  are  alike  interested 
in  greater  production,  he  will  begin  to  comprehend 
what  co-operation  in  industrial  production  really 
means.  Persons  otherwise  intelligent  go  about  the 
country  telling  us  that  it  is  mere  hypocrisy  to  say  that 
the  interests  of  employer  and  employed  are  the  same. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  mere  ignorance  to  say  they  are 
not  the  same. 

When  this  point  has  been  made  clear  and  industry  is 
viewed  as  a  co-operative  enterprise  in  production,  then 
it  follows  that  those  who  work  with  their  hands,  like 
those  who  work  with  their  brains  and  those  who  work 
with  their  savings,  are  entitled  to  take  part  in  the 
organization  and  direction  of  the  industry  and  to  have 
a  voice  in  determining  the  conditions  under  which  their 
co-operation  shall  be  given  and  continued.  No  matter 
how  many  or  how  few  persons  may  have  contributed 
of  their  savings  to  the  organization  and  carrying  on  of 
a  given  industry,  that  industry  does  not,  therefore, 
belong  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  word  to  them  alone; 
it  belongs,  also,  to  those  human  beings  who  co-operate 
with  them  by  aiding  in  the  production  of  goods  either 


84       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

by  the  work  of  their  hands  or  by  the  work  of  their 
brains.  This  principle  can  readily  be  applied  without 
interfering  with  the  effectiveness  of  skilled  and  respon- 
sible management. 

The  policy  of  reasonableness  will  carry  us  a  step 
farther.  The  industry  so  conceived  and  so  organized 
will  have  to  sell  its  product  at  a  price  that  will  enable 
it  to  pay  to  those  who  work  with  their  hands  a  thor- 
oughly satisfactory  wage,  to  those  who  work  with 
their  brains  an  appropriate  salary,  and  to  those  who 
work  with  their  savings  a  definite  minimum  return 
based  upon  the  current  value  of  money.  As  the  wages 
and  the  salaries  must  be  paid  in  any  event,  it  is  interest 
or  dividends  upon  savings  which  must  bear  the  brunt 
of  any  shortage  in  net  income.  The  cost  of  deprecia- 
tion and  replacement  is  also  to  be  met.  When  all 
these  have  been  provided  for,  whatever  remains  is 
profit.  Reasonableness  indicates  that  this  profit  should 
not  go  to  one  group  alone  of  the  three  who  co-operate 
in  production,  but  should  be  apportioned  between  all 
three  groups  in  accordance  with  a  plan  drawn  to  meet 
the  facts  of  a  given  industry.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  be  a  loss  instead  of  a  profit,  or  a  deficiency  in 
the  amount  needed  to  meet  all  of  the  items  just  stated, 
the  amount  of  that  deficiency  is  met,  as  matters  now 
stand,  by  those  who  work  with  their  savings  alone. 
There  is  merit  in  the  suggestion  that  a  given  industry 
should,  in  years  of  prosperity,  establish  an  undistrib- 
uted reserve  fund  against  which  should  be  charged 
any  losses  that  might  subsequently  be  incurred.  It  is 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       85 

impossible,  however,  to  cover  all  contingencies  by  one 
formula.  It  would  appear  to  be  a  complete  justifica- 
tion of  the  method  of  reasonableness  if  industry  be 
viewed  as  an  enterprise  in  co-operative  production;  if 
the  three  co-operating  agencies  be  all  recognized  and 
treated  as  human  beings  and  not  as  abstractions;  if 
the  reward  of  each  of  these  agencies  be  seen  to  be 
derived  from  the  product  and  from  it  alone;  and  if  the 
joint  and  co-operative  interest  in  a  common  product 
be  maintained  and  increased  by  giving  to  representa- 
tives of  each  of  these  elements  a  direct  share  in  the 
conduct  and  control  of  the  industry  and  its  policies. 
A  system  of  industrial  organization  such  as  this  is  not 
only  entirely  compatible  with  our  American  principles 
of  government  and  of  life,  but  it  is  nothing  more  than 
a  decent  application  of  those  principles  to  modern  in- 
dustry. There  would  be  no  "wage  slavery"  under 
such  a  plan. 

The  rule  of  reasonableness  in  the  field  of  industry 
will  probably  no  more  certainly  supplant  entirely  the 
rule  of  force  than  will  be  the  case  in  the  field  of  inter- 
national relations;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  international 
relations,  the  habit  of  reasonableness  will  more  or  less 
speedily  supplant  the  habit  of  force.  Until  the  millen- 
nium comes  and  until  selfishness  and  greed  disappear 
from  the  world,  there  will  be  no  frictionless  industrial 
machinery.  All  that  can  be  hoped  for  is  to  apply  the 
methods  of  reasonableness  and  to  support  those  meth- 
ods by  good-will,  by  sympathy,  and  by  kindly  criticism 
of  happenings  as  they  occur.  This  way  lie  peace,  prog- 


86       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

ress,  and  the  preservation  of  American  institutions  and 
ideals. 

If,  however,  we  are  not  to  use  or  are  not  to  be  per- 
mitted to  use  the  methods  of  reasonableness  in  dealing 
with  these  problems,  then  we  must  be  prepared  for  the 
use  of  force.  This  alternative  is  shocking.  It  would 
mean  nothing  less  than  the  substitution  of  anarchy  for 
order,  of  physical  power  for  justice,  and  of  a  perpetual 
struggle  between  changing  and  conflicting  interests 
for  the  calm  and  temperate  discussion  of  principles. 
It  would  almost  certainly  involve  the  destruction  of 
the  individual's  moral  right  to  own  property,  which 
right  is  itself  an  attribute  of  liberty  and  an  essential 
condition  of  social  and  political  progress. 

It  would  seem  that  it  is  precisely  to  prevent  such 
happenings  as  these  that  man's  political  organization, 
the  state  and  its  government,  have  been  brought  into 
being.  The  power  of  the  state,  we  say,  will  prevent 
these  self-seeking  and  violent  attacks  on  civilization, 
and  will  protect  alike  the  achievements  and  the  acquisi- 
tions of  the  people.  This  assumption  ought  to  be 
correct  and  will  yet  be  justified  if  men  think  clearly, 
and  fully  appreciate  the  relation  in  which  their  political 
organization  stands  to  organization  and  affiliation  of 
every  other  kind.  The  fundamental  purpose  of  the 
state  is  to  preserve  order,  to  defend  liberty,  and  to 
keep  open  the  door  of  opportunity.  Without  order 
there  can  be  no  liberty,  and  without  liberty  there  can 
be  no  continuing  progress.  These  are  the  reasons  why 
that  form  of  human  association  and  organization  which 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       87 

has  to  do  with  order  and  with  liberty  and,  therefore, 
with  progress,  namely,  the  political  form  known  as  the 
state,  differs  from  other  forms  of  human  association 
and  takes  precedence  over  every  other  such  form.  In 
the  democratically  organized  state,  particularly  that 
established  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
there  is  frequent  and  direct  opportunity  to  shape  pub- 
lic policy  in  orderly  fashion  after  debate  in  the  presence 
of  the  whole  citizenship  of  the  nation,  and  at  the  hands 
of  the  chosen  representatives  of  that  citizenship.  Such 
is  the  normal  and  the  healthy  process  of  political  life 
and  political  change.  In  recent  years,  however,  the 
highly  complex  organization  of  our  economic  and  in- 
dustrial life  and  the  manifold  interdependences  by 
means  of  which  we  sustain  life  and  carry  on  business 
have  brought  into  view  the  possibility  of  quickly  check- 
ing the  whole  machinery  of  our  economic  and  industrial 
life  by  bringing  to  a  stop  the  operation  of  some  neces- 
sary element  in  it.  At  first  the  checking  of  the  opera- 
tion of  a  necessary  element  in  our  economic  life  was 
made  the  means  of  enforcing  changed  conditions  of 
compensation  or  of  employment  on  the  part  of  indi- 
vidual or  corporate  employers.  This  method  is  known 
as  the  strike  and  is,  of  course,  a  manifestation  of  force. 
The  strike  is  at  best  not  a  method  of  reasonableness 
but  a  weapon  of  industrial  war,  and  it  ought  in  time 
to  become  obsolete  with  the  submarine  and  the  Big 
Bertha.  It  will  become  obsolete  when  men  come  more 
clearly  to  understand  what  industrial  co-operation 
really  involves,  on  what  basis  it  rests,  and  how  entirely 


88  THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

at  one  are  the  interests  in  production  of  every  co- 
operating agency  in  any  industry. 

Recently  the  startling  doctrine  has  been  taught  and 
practised  that  the  strike  may  be  used  to  enforce  the 
views  and  wishes  of  a  small  minority  of  the  population 
in  matters  relating  not  only  to  public  transportation 
and  to  other  public  utilities,  but  to  political  and  public 
acts  of  every  sort.  This  is  to  call  back  the  Liberum 
Veto  of  ancient  Poland  with  a  vengeance.  According 
to  this  doctrine  a  group  of  individuals  who  do  not  ap- 
prove of  the  tariff  levied  on  wool  may  unite  to  make 
impossible  the  operation  of  a  steamer  which  carries 
a  cargo  of  wool  from  Argentina  to  the  United  States, 
or  to  prevent  the  unloading  of  such  cargo  when  the 
steamer  reaches  the  docks  of  New  York.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  may  deem  it  necessary 
to  send  troops  and  to  ship  munitions  to  Siberia,  but 
under  this  doctrine  stevedores  and  longshoremen  at 
the  ports  of  San  Francisco  and  of  Seattle  would  be 
entirely  justified  in  refusing  to  load  or  to  permit  to 
be  loaded  the  vessels  which  were  to  carry  such  troops 
and  munitions  in  case  they  as  individuals  should  happen 
to  disapprove  of  the  government's  policy  in  this  re- 
gard. Still  others  might  say  that  they  would  refuse 
to  assist  in  operating  the  railways  of  the  United  States, 
and  would  unite  to  prevent  their  being  operated  by 
others,  unless  a  certain  designated  public  policy  in 
regard  to  railway  ownership  and  operation  were  quickly 
adopted.  It  must  be  apparent  from  these  illustrations 
that  without  complete  loyalty  to  the  democratic  prin- 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       89 

ciple,  without  respect  for  law,  without  sincere  devotion 
to  American  ideals  of  government,  and  without  good- 
will on  the  part  of  all  elements  and  groups  of  society, 
the  economic  and  political  life  of  the  nation  can  no 
longer  go  forward,  and  that  we  are  in  imminent  danger 
of  national  shipwreck  and  of  incalculable  disaster. 

Were  it  not  for  the  well-known  irresponsibility  of 
many  of  those  who  attempt  to  guide  the  public  by 
teaching  and  by  writing,  it  would  be  startling  to  learn 
that  at  so  critical  a  time  as  this  in  the  history  of  Amer- 
ican civilization  the  doctrine  is  actually  being  formally 
and  systematically  taught  that  man's  political  organi- 
zation, the  state,  is  not  any  more  fundamental  than 
several  other  forms  of  human  association,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  state  has  no  necessarily  superior  claim 
upon  the  loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  citizen.  There 
are  those  who  assert  that  the  political  state  is  only 
one  among  many  forms  of  human  association,  and 
that  it  is  not  necessarily  any  more  in  harmony  with 
what  some  writers  are  pleased  to  call  "the  end  of  so- 
ciety" than  a  church,  or  a  trade-union,  or  a  masonic 
lodge,  or  a  college  fraternity.  What  this  means  when 
brought  down  from  the  language  of  academic  detach- 
ment from  facts  to  the  plane  of  hard  common  sense 
is  that  the  American  nation  is  not  really  a  unit  but  a 
multiple  object  composed  of  men  in  political  relation- 
ships, in  church  memberships,  in  trade-union  member- 
ships, in  college  fraternity  memberships,  and  in  half 
a  hundred  other  co-ordinate  memberships,  each  of 
which  has  its  own  claims  upon  our  loyalty.  It  is  held 


90       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

that  the  political  relationship  is  but  one  of  many,  and 
that  the  individual  must  decide  which  of  his  relation- 
ships and  which  of  his  loyalties  is  at  any  given  time 
to  take  precedence  of  the  others.  For  example,  a  man 
might  decide  that  his  loyalty  to  his  college  fraternity 
overrode  his  loyalty  to  the  state,  in  so  far  as  the  latter 
required  him  to  abstain  from  assault  and  battery.  Or 
he  might  decide  that  his  loyalty  to  his  church  or  to 
his  trade-union  required  him  to  defy  some  act  of  Con- 
gress or  some  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  This  course  of  reasoning  and  of  pro- 
cedure would  make  of  life  one  continual  lynching.  In- 
dividuals or  groups  of  individuals,  would  in  this  way 
be  brought  into  constant  contempt  and  defiance  of 
law,  with  the  certain  result  that  civilization  must  dis- 
appear in  the  smoke  of  armed  conflict  between  different 
groups  of  selfish  and  self-seeking  men. 

This  doctrine,  which  it  is  asserted  is  now  being 
taught  in  American  universities  and  even  in  American 
law  schools,  is  given  several  high-sounding  names,  but 
it  is  correctly  and  bluntly  described  as  the  gospel  of 
anarchy  and  disorder,  as  well  as  of  the  complete  de- 
struction of  everything  that  mankind  has  accomplished 
during  the  past  three  thousand  years. 

It  is  because  of  more  or  less  conscious  adherence  to 
this  sort  of  teaching  that  the  I.  W.  W.  and  other  like- 
minded  organizations  propose  to  force  political  action 
by  economic  pressure  or  by  economic  war.  Those 
who  are  in  this  state  of  mind  not  only  decry  but  despise 
democracy,  and  those  who  are  frank  among  them  do 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM  91 

not  hesitate  to  say  so.  They  do  not  believe  in  equality 
of  opportunity  or  in  liberty,  but  in  class  organization, 
class  privilege,  and  class  tyranny.  The  spokesmen  for 
this  doctrine  are  often  persons  who  have  never  done 
a  day's  work  in  their  lives  but  who,  out  of  sheer  zeal 
for  destruction  and  mad  passion  for  notoriety,  associate 
themselves  with  various  organizations  of  wage-workers 
and  others  and  endeavor  to  bend  these  organizations 
to  their  own  ends. 

At  present  this  doctrine  is  supported  by  an  organized 
and  apparently  well-financed  propaganda.  We  have 
hardly  comprehended  how  completely  the  American 
people  are  at  the  mercy  of  skilful  propaganda  of  this 
sort.  The  experience  of  the  war  taught  us  that  prop- 
aganda can  do  almost  anything  with  public  opinion, 
at  least  for  a  time;  and  at  this  moment  propaganda  of 
all  kinds  is  well  under  way  all  about  us  except  as  re- 
gards the  one  essential  subject  of  the  state's  own  pres- 
ervation. The  state  is  so  busy  doing  things  for  par- 
ticular interests  and  groups  that  it  is  neglecting  the 
protection  of  its  own  life.  It  would  be  an  odd  by- 
product of  social  and  industrial  change  if  state  suicide 
were  to  be  one  of  its  results. 

The  possibility  of  this  has  just  now  been  brought 
home  to  observant  Americans  by  the  police  strike  in 
Boston,  Massachusetts.  Dangerous  as  this  strike 
was,  it  had  its  origin,  I  am  convinced,  more  in  igno- 
rance than  in  malice.  The  police  force  of  Boston  had 
apparently  never  been  taught  that  the  servants  of 
the  community  are  in  nowise  to  be  regarded  as  in  the 


92        THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

same  relation  as  are  employees  to  a  private  or  cor- 
porate employer.  If  the  police  force  or  any  other  set 
of  servants  of  the  community  of  Boston  find  the  terms 
of  their  service  harsh  or  unsatisfactory,  there  are  per- 
fectly definite  and  legitimate  ways  of  securing  both  a 
hearing  and  action  upon  any  request  they  may  make 
without  deserting  their  posts,  stripping  the  community 
of  its  power  of  self-protection,  and  opening  the  door 
to  every  crime  both  of  violence  and  of  cunning. 

A  strike  by  a  public  servant  is  a  direct  assault  on 
the  whole  community  and  is  nothing  less  than  only 
a  mild  form  of  treason;  and  it  may  not  always  be  mild. 
The  line  between  employer  and  employee,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  community  and  its  servants,  on  the 
other,  must  be  clearly  drawn  and  stoutly  maintained, 
not  only  in  the  interest  of  the  community  and  its  or- 
der, but  in  the  interest  of  the  wage-earners  themselves. 
Nothing  more  disastrous  could  happen  to  the  move- 
ment for  the  improvement  of  working  conditions,  now 
going  forward  so  happily,  than  to  have  the  general 
public  get  the  idea  that  those  who  desire  improvement 
for  themselves  are  willing  to  conspire  against  the  peace, 
order,  and  public  service  of  the  whole  community.  If 
public  servants  were  to  be  assimilated  in  practice  to 
employees  of  private  and  corporate  enterprise,  and  if 
they  were  to  use  the  strike  as  a  mode  of  enforcing  their 
requests  or  demands,  then  the  American  form  of  gov- 
ernment would  have  come  to  an  end.  Neither  justice 
nor  liberty  would  longer  be  possible,  and  in  their  stead 
we  should  have  disturbed  and  hectic  rule  by  quickly 


THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM       93 

succeeding  minority  groups,  the  result  of  which  would 
be  anarchy,  universal  impoverishment,  and  nation- 
wide distress. 

For  similar  reasons  an  attempt  by  any  part  of  the 
community  to  force  political  action  through  with- 
holding their  service  in  the  complex  economic  and  in- 
dustrial life  of  the  people  is  absolutely  indefensible. 
We  are  so  closely  interdependent  that  it  is  quite  im- 
possible for  any  considerable  group  of  individuals  sud- 
denly to  withdraw  their  services  without  producing 
far-reaching  and  disastrous  effects  in  ways  and  of  a 
kind  wholly  unforeseen.  It  is  not  true  that  our  loyalty 
to  any  one  of  a  dozen  of  our  associations  is  the  same  in 
character  and  quality  as  our  loyalty  to  the  state.  The 
state  demands  our  primary  loyalty  because  only  through 
loyalty  to  it  can  our  other  loyalties  have  any  mean- 
ing or  importance.  If  the  loyalty  upon  which  depend 
order,  liberty,  and  progress  is  only  the  same  in  kind  as 
the  loyalty  upon  which  depend  some  personal  or  eco- 
nomic satisfactions,  patriotism  is  dissolved  in  selfish- 
ness and  the  sort  of  democratic  Republic  that  we  flat- 
tered ourselves  we  were  building  becomes  an  impos- 
sibility. 

To  solve  the  real  labor  problem,  then,  we  must  think 
straight  and  clear  regarding  facts  of  industry,  and 
think  straight  and  clear  regarding  principles  of  political 
organization.  Continued  industrial  progress  and  far- 
reaching  industrial  reform  are  easily  possible,  and 
indeed  in  my  view  are  only  possible  if  the  principles 
and  ideals  on  which,  and  for  which,  the  American 


94       THE  REAL  LABOR  PROBLEM 

people  have  been  building  for  a  century  and  a  half  are 
maintained  and  strengthened.  Moreover,  we  must 
shun  and  take  active  steps  to  limit  the  influence  of 
those  who  foment  unrest  and  organize  industrial  war 
and  who  thrive  upon  this  process.  These  are  public 
enemies  and  the  hand-workers*  meanest  friends.  From 
the  very  active  company  of  those  who  would  not  hesi- 
tate to  tear  down  or  to  overthrow  the  government  of 
the  United  States  in  order  to  attain  their  immediate 
personal  or  group  ends,  there  has  not  come  a  single 
suggestion  which  does  not  spell  destruction.  Not  one 
of  those  who  claim  to  represent  these  movements  and 
tendencies  has  proposed  to  build  up  anything.  They 
are  all  bent  upon  destruction  in  the  wild  hope  that 
after  their  joy  in  tearing  down  has  had  full  satisfac- 
tion, somewhere  and  somehow  personal  advantage 
may  accrue  to  them.  In  the  process  they  would  not 
hesitate  to  destroy  America. 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Commercial  Club, 
San  Francisco,  California,  August  22,  1919 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

A  year  ago  we  spoke  together  of  the  situation  which 
then  confronted  us,  of  the  movements  of  thought  and 
of  action  which  were  bringing  the  war  to  its  close,  but 
our  doubts  were  not  wholly  resolved.  We  could  not 
then  see  with  definiteness  the  time  of  the  outcome,  and 
although  we  were  convinced  that  the  cause  of  righteous- 
ness for  which  we  were  making  every  sacrifice  was 
certain  to  prevail,  and  while  we  felt,  in  addition,  that 
with  the  aid  of  our  splendid  American  armies,  those 
who  were  singing  the  battle-cry  of  freedom  had  really 
gone  over  the  top  of  the  hill  of  difficulty,  we  were  not 
prepared  to  say  that  the  war  would  end  within  any 
measurable  number  of  weeks  or  months. 

Suddenly,  the  effects  of  the  great  corroding  forces 
that  were  at  work  in  the  German  and  Austrian  Empires, 
bringing  about  economic  and  social  and  political  col" 
lapse,  destruction  of  military  morale  and  military 
power,  taken  in  connection  with  the  irresistible  force 
of  the  great  armies  of  France  and  Britain  and  Italy  and 
America,  under  the  single  presiding  genius  of  Marshal 
Foch,  brought  the  war  to  a  sudden  end  by  the  armistice 
of  November  1 1  last.  It  was  as  if  a  great  curtain  had 
fallen  upon  the  most  magnificent  and  appalling  of 
dramas  which  history  could  anywhere  present  to  human 
contemplation.  In  a  twinkling  of  an  eye  the  contest, 

97 


98  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

in  the  military  sense,  was  over.  The  killing  of  men, 
the  marching  of  armies,  the  raiding  by  submarines, 
the  convulsions  of  every  sort  that  grew  out  of  this 
great  military  conflict,  ceased,  and  the  world  found 
itself,  without  an  instant's  warning,  without  chance 
for  preparation,  without  any  opportunity  to  study  or 
rehearse  the  steps  that  were  to  be  taken,  face  to  face 
with  the  problem  of  creating  out  of  the  chaotic  ele- 
ments which  were  the  result  and  the  accompaniment 
of  war,  a  new  world,  that  should  continue  all  that  was 
best  and  finest  and  most  splendid  in  the  old,  and  that 
should  add  to  it  everything  which  could  be  said  to  be 
a  direct  and  definite  and  convincing  lesson  of  the  war 
itself. 

Do  you  wonder  that  the  imagination  of  mankind 
was  staggered  by  a  task  like  that  ?  Can  you  wonder 
that  human  capacity  everywhere  was  appalled,  almost 
to  paralysis,  not  alone  by  the  far-reaching  character 
of  the  task  but  by  its  novelty  and  by  its  pressing  im- 
portance ?  For  the  old  world  of  armed  forces  and  in- 
ternational rivalries  and  national  exploitations  and 
varied  forms  of  compromise,  running  all  through  the 
industrial,  social,  and  the  political  structure — that 
world  had  gone,  and  something  must  be  created  to 
take  its  place. 

That  topic  is  so  large;  it  presents  so  many  aspects; 
it  opens  up  so  many  avenues  of  contemplation  and 
discussion  that  it  would  require  days  for  an  intel- 
ligent body  of  Americans  even  to  pass  together  over 
the  high  spots  of  its  importance.  Therefore,  this  morn- 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  99 

ing,  I  am  going  to  confine  myself  to  expressing  some 
opinions  and  asking  some  questions  in  reference  to 
one  aspect  only  of  our  present-day  problems,  the  one 
which  I  conceive  to  be  of  most  immediate  importance, 
and  to  have  in  it  the  seeds  of  the  greatest  danger,  if 
not  handled  with  courage,  with  knowledge,  with  firm- 
ness, and  with  statesmanlike  capacity  and  vision. 

Following  the  war,  men  have  attempted  to  return 
to  their  accustomed  occupations,  to  reorganize  the 
business  of  the  world,  and  they  find  themselves  every- 
where confronted  by  an  imperative  struggle  for  exist- 
ence in  more  stringent  form  than  they  have  been  ac- 
customed to  for  generations  past.  In  the  language 
of  every-day  speech,  they  are  confronted  by  the  high 
cost  of  living.  They  are  confronted,  not  alone  as  com- 
munities and  states  and  nations,  not  alone  as  cor- 
porations, or  as  individual  employers,  or  as  workers 
for  wage  or  for  salary;  they  are  confronted  by  the 
problem  in  their  capacity  as  individual  citizens,  be- 
cause so  heavily  does  the  high  cost  of  living  press  upon 
every  individual  that,  in  order  to  seek  relief  from  it, 
in  order  to  find  the  solution  for  it,  he  is  all  too  ready 
to  accept  formulas  for  facts,  doctrinaire  leadership  for 
statesmanlike  analysis  and  direction,  and  a  false  and 
destructive  solution  for  one  that  is  true  and  construc- 
tive in  its  applications  and  in  its  results. 

This  issue  in  its  larger  reference  is  of  gravest  im- 
portance. When  men  in  large  masses  and  in  large 
numbers  cannot  live,  there  is  no  security  for  even 
the  oldest,  the  best-established,  and  the  most  highly 


ioo  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

honored  of  political  and  social  institutions.  Men  must 
be  able  to  live;  the  world's  business  must  be  able  to 
go  on;  commerce,  trade,  industry,  finance  are  all  the 
essential  underlying  foundations  of  what  we  call  the 
richer  and  the  riper  civilization.  Without  these  there 
is  no  art,  there  is  no  literature,  there  is  no  education, 
there  is  no  poetry,  there  is  no  opportunity  for  the  flower- 
ing and  the  enjoyment  of  the  intellectual  and  the  spir- 
itual life. 

First  of  all,  men  must  live.  There  are  those  who, 
when  they  find  themselves  face  to  face  with  a  problem 
of  that  kind,  begin  to  dash  about  like  a  lion  in  a  cage, 
showing  great  excitement,  making  violent  expressions, 
calling  for  the  blood  of  some  individual  or  group,  but 
making  no  contribution  whatever  to  an  understanding 
of  the  problem. 

I  should  like,  if  I  may,  briefly  to  suggest  what  I  be- 
lieve to  be  the  essential  elements  of  this  problem,  and 
the  only  way  in  which  we,  as  Americans,  men  of 
thought,  of  consideration,  of  loyal  patriotism,  and  of 
generous  impulse  for  service  to  our  fellow  men — the 
only  way  in  which  we  can  hope  to  solve  this  problem 
and  to  avert  from  civilization  the  dangers  which  the 
failure  to  solve  it  will  certainly  entail. 

Let  me  point  out,  first,  that  the  problem  of  the  high 
cost  of  living  is  by  no  means  entirely  a  result  of  the 
war.  The  war  has  multiplied  the  elements  that  en- 
tered into  it;  it  has  increased  their  significance;  it 
has  spread  over  wider  areas  their  effect;  it  has,  of 
course,  added  some  new  and  highly  important  ele- 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  101 

ments  of  its  own,  but  the  problem  of  the  high  cost  of 
living  was  upon  us  before  the  war,  and,  while  less  acute, 
it  would  in  due  time  have  come  to  vex  our  statesman- 
ship and  our  economic,  our  industrial,  and  our  political 
capacity. 

Moreover,  this  problem  is  in  no  sense  one  for  the 
people  of  the  United  States  alone.  It  is  a  world-wide 
problem.  It  has  had  world-wide  manifestations  for  a 
number  of  years,  and  these  manifestations  have  been 
substantially  alike  in  all  of  the  great  industrial  nations 
of  the  earth.  Inasmuch  as  the  whole  world  has  been 
involved  in  the  war,  directly  and  indirectly,  the  prob- 
lem has  been  increased  and  accentuated  for  the  whole 
world.  The  causes  that  were  operating  here  were 
operating  elsewhere.  The  additional  impetus  that  has 
been  given  to  those  causes  by  the  war  here  has  been 
given  to  the  operation  of  those  causes  elsewhere. 

If  I  were  asked  to  venture  an  opinion  as  to  what 
were  the  factors  in  bringing  about  the  world-wide 
problem  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  I  should  suggest 
these  five: 

First:  The  extraordinary  expansion  of  credit,  ac- 
companied by  currency  inflation,  due,  primarily,  to 
public  and  private  waste,  extravagance,  and  borrow- 
ing for  non-productive  purposes.  That  had  been  going 
on  everywhere  before  the  war.  The  war  immensely 
increased  both  borrowing  and  waste  and  extravagance. 
It  increased  some  of  it  naturally  and  normally,  because 
we  had  to  win  the  war,  no  matter  what  it  cost.  But, 
in  addition,  under  the  pressure  of  the  war  emergency, 


102  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

under  the  pressure  of  the  war  spirit,  nations  and  in- 
dividuals alike,  finding  new  opportunities  for  credit 
expansion,  entered  upon  a  scale  of  expenditure  the 
like  of  which  is  not  recorded  anywhere  in  economic 
history. 

And  you  cannot  borrow  from  the  future  without 
having  to  pay.  You  are  now  paying  in  part  for  waste, 
extravagance,  and  credit  expansion  before  the  war, 
and,  in  part,  the  cost  of  the  war  itself.  You  cannot 
have  a  great  world  war  and  not  pay  for  it.  It  cannot 
go  on  for  nearly  five  years  and  consume  a  large  part 
of  the  industrial  competence  of  the  world  and  leave 
costs  and  prices  where  they  were  before.  We  are  not 
the  only  people  from  whose  history  evidence  of  the 
correctness  of  these  statements  can  be  drawn.  In 
France  there  had  been  a  steady  expansion  of  credit 
and  a  steady  inflation  of  the  currency  for  years. 

In  1906  the  circulating  medium  of  France  was  seven 
and  one  half  billion  francs;  in  1914  it  was  twelve  bil- 
lion francs;  in  1919  it  is  forty  billion  francs;  and  the 
population  of  France  has  not  altered  in  the  interval, 
save,  perhaps,  it  has  been  somewhat  diminished  by 
the  losses  due  to  the  war. 

Down  to  1 88 1  our  per-capita  circulation  in  the 
United  States  had  never  gone  above  twenty  dollars. 
Twenty  years  later  it  was  still  below  thirty  dollars. 
When  the  war  broke  out  't  was  about  forty  dollars. 
At  the  present  time  it  is  fifty  dollars  and  seventy-five 
or  eighty  cents.  If  that  credit  expansion  and  cur- 
rency inflation  alone  had  been  operative,  the  cost  of 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  103 

everything  would  have  risen,  because  money  itself, 
the  circulating  medium,  would  have  been  so  much 
cheaper. 

What  is  the  remedy?  The  remedy  is  public  econ- 
omy and  private  thrift.  Save  and  invest  in  produc- 
tive industry.  Every  individual  and  every  govern- 
ment can  contribute  to  a  reduction  of  the  high  cost 
of  living  by  economy,  frugality,  and  thrift,  and  by 
investment  in  productive  industry  alone,  in  place  of 
expenditure  for  extravagant  or  wasteful  purposes. 

Very  homely  counsel,  you  say.  It  sounds  so  like 
a  leaf  from  old  Benjamin  Franklin  that  it  is  too 
old-fashioned,  perhaps,  to  be  of  any  use  to-day.  No, 
gentlemen,  that  counsel  is  the  beginning  of  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  high  cost  of  living. 

You  have  eighteen  States  in  the  American  Union 
that  are,  every  year,  spending  more  than  they  are 
raising  by  taxation.  To  borrow  is  excellent  policy, 
when  the  money  borrowed  is  invested  in  productive 
industry  and  pays  a  return  larger  than  the  cost  of 
borrowing,  but  to  borrow  for  ordinary  governmental 
expenses,  or  for  household  living,  means,  first,  increased 
cost  and,  next,  bankruptcy.  And  there  I  find,  in  my 
analysis  of  the  facts,  the  first  of  the  world-wide  causes 
operating  to  increase  the  cost  of  living.  Do  you 
realize  that  the  public  debts  of  the  world  have  gone 
up  from  forty  billions  to  two  hundred  and  twenty 
billions;  that  the  world  now  owes  almost  the  entire 
value  of  the  United  States — its  land,  its  industries, 
its  capital,  its  possessions  of  every  sort ,?  The  world 


104  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

has  borrowed  from  its  future  pretty  nearly  the  whole 
value  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  on  that 
it  is  paying  interest,  and  that  interest  is  a  charge 
upon  industry,  upon  livelihood,  and  that  interest  is 
at  this  moment  increasing  the  cost  of  living.  When 
governments  economize  and  bring  their  expenditures 
within  their  income;  when  individuals  economize  and 
bring  their  expenditures  within  their  incomes,  and  when 
the  two  begin  to  reduce  their  indebtedness,  then  we 
shall  have  taken  the  first  great  and  long  step  toward 
restoring  economic  equilibrium  and  toward  getting 
back  to  a  real  business  basis  in  the  conduct  of  the 
affairs  of  the  world. 

A  second  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the  marked  diminu- 
tion of  production.  That  diminution  of  production 
has  been  greatly  accelerated  by  the  war,  because  the 
war  took  in  round  numbers  twenty-five  million  men 
from  productive  industry  and  turned  them  into  con- 
sumers, and  into  an  occupation  which,  from  the 
standpoint  of  economics,  was  expenditure  of  a  waste- 
ful kind.  You  cannot  take  twenty-five  million  men 
from  production  and  turn  them  into  consumers  with- 
out increasing  the  cost  of  living  for  everybody.  That 
is  a  legitimate  war  cost,  and  that  has  to  be  paid  for, 
and  that  is  paid  for  in  part  by  the  increased  prices  of 
everything  that  we  eat  and  wear  and  use. 

There  is  another  cause  which  has  diminished  pro- 
duction, which  was  operative  before  the  war,  and  which 
is  still  operating,  and  will  continue  to  operate  until 
checked  in  a  manner  which  I  should  like  briefly  to 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  105 

indicate.  That  is  the  diminished  hours  of  labor 
throughout  the  world  have  not  yet  been  compensated 
for  by  more  effective  industrial  production.  During 
the  past  generation,  probably  fifty  million  men  and 
women  in  the  industrial  nations  of  the  world  have  had 
their  stated  hours  of  labor  reduced  from  twelve,  eleven, 
and  ten,  to  eight.  I  conceive  that  to  have  been  a 
great  social  advantage  and  in  the  interest  of  public 
stability,  public  satisfaction,  and  public  health.  That 
reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  is  a  thoroughly  justi- 
fiable public  and  economic  policy,  but  it  is  bound  to 
decrease  production  unless,  by  new  methods,  by  im- 
proved machinery,  by  better  distribution,  by  more 
effective  shop  organization,  there  can  be  produced  in 
eight  hours  as  much  or  more  goods  and  services  as 
were  formerly  produced  in  longer  hours. 

Our  problem  here  is  to  speed  up  production  under 
the  conditions  of  a  shortened  day,  under  the  healthful 
surroundings  which  are  now  becoming,  fortunately, 
common  in  modern  industry  of  every  kind.  It  is  to 
speed  up  production,  and  to  speed  it  up  by  the  use  of 
brains,  by  the  use  of  skill,  by  the  use  of  organizing 
and  executive  ability,  and  by  better  organization  of 
production  and  distribution. 

We  have  been  specially  lacking  in  this  country  in  or- 
ganizing our  means  of  distribution  of  the  food  supply. 
We  have  done  wonderfully  well  in  providing  for  the 
distribution  of  individuals  desiring  to  move  about 
the  country  for  one  form  of  business  or  another.  We 
have  done  very  well  in  arranging  for  the  distribution 


io6  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

of  large  bulk  of  goods,  but  we  are  still  in  a  very  primi- 
tive stage  in  regard  to  the  distribution  of  what  may  be 
called  the  food  supply  drawn  from  the  neighborhood. 
An  examination  and  an  analysis  of  the  food  supply 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  for  example,  or  of  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  or  the  city  of  Boston,  would  show 
that  there  are  a  great  many  waste  motions;  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  duplication  and  unnecessary  cost,  be- 
cause we  have  not  yet  put  our  brains  upon  the  question 
of  effective  and  economical  distribution  of  the  food 
supply  for  a  great  mass  of  population. 

Therefore,  as  a  second  remedy  for  the  high  cost  of 
living,  I  say  that  we  must  speed  up  production  by  the 
use  of  brains,  by  the  use  of  skill,  and  by  the  use  of 
organizing  ability. 

A  third  cause  of  the  high  cost  of  living  is  the  natural 
rise  in  the  cost  of  raw  material  of  the  food  supply  of 
the  world,  due  to  the  operation  of  causes  operative 
everywhere,  including  the  drift  of  the  rural  population 
to  the  cities,  the  using  up  of  the  better  and  more  acces- 
sible land  in  every  country,  and  the  failure  in  some 
parts  of  the  world  to  make  use  of  the  newest  and  most 
improved  methods  of  intensive  and  productive  agri- 
culture. 

In  addition  to  that,  we  have  withdrawn  from  the 
food  supply  of  the  world  the  immense  areas  in  Russia, 
Rumania,  and  Hungary — the  great  grain-producing 
area  of  southern  and  eastern  Europe.  That  has  been 
practically  taken  away  from  the  world's  production, 
owing  to  the  war.  Even  if  the  land  has  been  culti- 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  107 

vated,  and  we  know  that  it  has  only  been  cultivated  in 
part,  and  under  very  difficult  conditions — even  if  it 
has  been  cultivated,  it  has  been  cut  off  from  the  rest 
of  the  world  by  the  blockade,  by  the  line  of  military 
operations  across  western  Europe,  and  by  the  inability 
to  procure  transportation,  either  by  land  or  by  sea. 
In  part,  those  causes  were  working  before  the  war;  in 
part,  they  are  the  result  of  the  war.  Relief  is  to  be 
found,  first,  in  speedily  restoring  to  productive  agricul- 
ture for  the  world's  consumption  the  areas  in  Russia, 
Rumania,  and  Hungary  that  have  been  cut  off;  and, 
second,  in  doing  everything  we  can  to  develop  more 
productive  and  intensive  agriculture  in  America,  in 
Great  Britain,  in  France,  in  Holland,  in  Spain,  and  in 
Italy,  and  in  quickening  and  cheapening  distribution. 
A  fourth  cause  operating  to  increase  the  cost  of  living 
is  one  which  seems  largely  to  have  escaped  attention, 
but  which  is  highly  operative  in  England  and  in  this 
country.  The  systems  of  taxation  adopted  in  Great 
Britain  and  in  the  United  States  to  finance  the  war, 
including  the  form  of  the  income  and  the  excess  profit 
taxes,  have  operated  to  increase  directly  and  every- 
where the  cost  of  living.  The  reason  is  this:  if  you 
take  a  producer,  a  trader,  or  a  distributer,  who  is  doing 
a  business  of  a  certain  volume,  and  who  desires  to  in- 
crease his  profit  or  his  business  by  one  dollar  per  unit, 
he  must  increase  the  price  to  the  public  perhaps  five 
dollars  per  unit  in  order  to  pay  four  dollars  per  unit  to 
the  government,  and  have  one  dollar  per  unit  left.  If 
the  enterprise  is  one  in  which  there  are  a  large  number 


io8  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

of  contributing  parts,  if  the  enterprise  is  a  chain  of  six 
or  seven  links,  and  if  each  link  of  the  chain  finds  it 
necessary  to  get  one  dollar  more  profit  in  order  to  do 
business,  then  each  of  the  six  or  seven  links  must  in- 
crease its  charge  by  five  dollars  in  order  to  get  one 
dollar;  and  seven  times  five  is  thirty-five,  of  which 
seven  is  profit,  and  twenty-eight  is  tax. 

What  that  means  is  this:  not  that  we  should  take 
steps  to  relieve  wealth  of  its  just  burden  of  taxation, 
but  that  we  should  so  readjust  and  restudy  those  taxes 
that,  instead  of  necessarily  increasing  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing, they  should  stimulate  enterprise,  quicken  initiative, 
increase  production,  reduce  unemployment,  and  de- 
crease the  cost  of  living.  It  is  all  a  question  between 
thinking  out  the  form  of  that  tax,  and  where  its  inci- 
dence is  going  to  lie,  before  you  impose  it,  or  not  think- 
ing about  it  at  all,  and  letting  it  fall  where  it  will. 

If  there  is  to  be  no  revision  of  the  form  of  those 
taxes,  then  you  must  be  confronted  with  the  fact  that 
there  will  be  a  restriction  of  initiative,  a  constant  de- 
crease in  production,  and  a  steady  increase  in  the  cost 
of  living.  In  the  attempt  to  tax  wealth  heavily,  a  form 
has  been  chosen  which  has  done  that,  but,  in  addition, 
has  increased  the  cost  of  living.  We  shall  not  escape 
from  this  until  we  revise  that  form.  Continue  to  tax 
wealth,  but  do  so  in  a  way  that  will  not  so  heavily  and 
so  directly  increase  the  cost  of  living. 

A  very  large  industrial  enterprise  recently  made  a 
comparison  of  its  costs,  and  of  its  payments  out  in 
1918  and  in  1913,  and  it  found  that  the  excess  of  pay- 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  109 

ments  in  1918  over  1913  was  to  be  accounted  for  in 
this  way:  labor,  57  per  cent;  taxes,  40  per  cent;  capital, 
3  per  cent — and  that  case  is  probably  typical.  In  other 
words,  the  labor  cost,  which  can  only  be  brought  down 
by  better  methods  of  production,  and  the  cost  in  taxa- 
tion, which  can  only  be  brought  down  by  economy  in 
government  and  more  scientific  levying  of  taxes,  had 
consumed  97  per  cent  of  the  excess  in  those  five  years. 
That  shows  you  exactly  where  the  high  cost  of  living 
comes  from,  and  the  road  along  which  you  must  travel 
in  order  to  reduce  it.  It  does  not  involve  any  jugglery, 
any  magic,  any  metaphysical  handling  of  our  economic 
and  political  and  social  system.  It  requires  hard, 
plain  business  sense  to  look  the  facts  in  the  face,  to  see 
precisely  what  they  are,  and  to  organize  industrial  and 
social  and  political  policy  in  view  of  those  facts. 

Last  of  all  comes  profiteering.  That  there  has  been 
profiteering,  everybody  knows.  Under  such  a  condi- 
tion as  has  existed  in  the  world  for  the  last  five  years  it 
has  been  possible  for  profiteering  to  go  on  in  many 
directions.  There  are  those  who  would  like  to  shoot 
profiteers.  There  are  those  who  would  wish  to  im- 
prison profiteers.  All  profiteers,  where  they  are  really 
taking  advantage  of  an  opportunity  to  oppress  the 
public,  should  be  punished.  That  goes  without  say- 
ing. But,  gentlemen,  if  we  had  punished  all  the  prof- 
iteers, you  would  not  reduce  the  cost  of  living  appre- 
ciably for  anybody,  because  the  other  and  far  more 
important  causes  of  expenditure  are  operating  all  over 
the  world.  If  you  had  them  all  shot,  or  all  locked  up, 


no  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

and  everything  which  they  have  hoarded  distributed 
to  us,  you  would  still  have  expansion  of  credit  and 
currency  inflation;  you  would  still  have  diminution 
of  production;  you  would  still  have  increase  in  the 
cost  of  agricultural  products;  you  would  still  have 
the  incidence  of  an  unscientifically  levied  system  of 
taxation. 

So  that,  while  we  wish  to  get  rid  of  profiteering,  we 
wish  to  punish  profiteering,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves 
by  supposing  that  when  that  is  done  the  cost  of  living 
is  going  automatically  to  drop  to  the  point  where  it 
was  in  1880  or  1890,  or  1900,  or  1910,  or  1914.  It  is 
not.  It  is  not  going  to  approach  what  it  was  at  any 
one  of  those  dates  until  the  operation  of  economic  law 
brings  about  the  conditions  which  prevailed  at  some 
one  or  other  of  those  dates. 

The  resource  of  many  of  those  in  authority  in  a  situ- 
ation like  this  is  to  try  to  satisfy  public  demand  by 
immediate  and  drastic  action  of  some  sort.  This  looks 
very  well;  it  fills  the  newspapers;  it  tickles  the  ears  of 
the  groundlings;  it  makes  an  impression  of  great  activ- 
ity; but,  gentlemen,  these  inexorable  economic  laws 
which  are  not  subject  to  amendment  and  repeal  by 
congresses  and  parliaments  and  legislatures,  these  in- 
exorable economic  laws  are  going  their  way  behind 
the  scenes  while  the  demagogues  howl  and  rage  and 
rant  all  over  these  various  countries  with  their  formulas 
and  their  maxims  and  their  methods  of  immediate 
solution. 

Our   task,    as    intelligent,    self-respecting,    patriotic 


THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  in 

Americans,  is  to  ask  for  the  facts.  If  these  which  I 
have  suggested  are  not  the  causes,  or  proximate  causes, 
of  the  high  cost  of  living,  what  are  they  ?  What  has 
been  operating  in  these  countries  to  bring  about  this 
condition  ?  If  these  methods  of  action,  public  and 
private,  which  I  have  pointed  out  will  not  lead  to 
relief,  what  are  the  methods  which  will  do  so  ?  This  is 
no  time  for  bravado;  this  is  no  time  for  cynicism;  this 
is  no  time  for  violence  or  revolution.  This  is  a  time 
for  clear,  sane,  courageous  thinking  on  the  facts  of 
business,  industrial,  and  political  life. 

When  you  examine  the  operation  of  these  laws  and 
forces  you  find  something  like  this:  taking  1913,  the 
year  before  the  war,  as  normal,  or  par,  you  will  find 
that  the  cost  of  living  five  years  before  that,  in  1908, 
was  represented  in  the  United  States  by  84;  Great 
Britain,  84;  France,  85.  Jn  other  words,  in  the  five 
years  from  1908  to  1913,  the  cost  of  living  in  those 
three  countries  had  risen  substantially  a  like  amount, 
owing,  of  course,  to  the  operation  of  similar  causes. 
But  if  you  take  those  figures  to-day,  1913  remaining 
par,  or  100,  they  are,  for  the  United  States,  197;  for 
Great  Britain,  217,  and  for  France,  312.  That  repre- 
sents what  has  happened  during  the  war  in  so  far  as 
the  cost  of  living  is  related  to  wages  and  incomes  in 
the  countries  named. 

Inasmuch  as  the  United  States  has  to  pay  its  share 
of  the  cost  of  the  war,  but  felt  little  of  the  destruction 
of  the  war,  our  figure  is  the  lowest,  197.  Inasmuch  as 
Great  Britain  had  to  pay  its  cost  of  the  war,  but  felt 


H2  TEE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

directly  some  of  the  loss  of  the  war,  its  figure  is  217. 
Since  France  had  not  only  to  pay  its  share  of  the  cost 
of  the  war,  but  felt  in  immense  degree  the  destruction 
of  the  war,  its  figure  is  312. 

Just  so  when  you  turn  to  production;  what  is  the 
use  of  looking  for  a  profiteer  in  the  English  coal  indus- 
try— the  key  or  basic  industry  of  Great  Britain  on 
which  everything  else  depends,  including  all  its  foreign 
trade — when  in  1918  the  production  was  240,000,000 
tons,  while  in  1913,  for  a  like  period,  it  was  287,000,000 
tons  ?  If  you  reduce  production  of  a  staple  fifty  mil- 
lion tons  in  a  like  number  of  weeks,  you  do  not  need  to 
look  for  profiteers  to  explain  the  increase  in  the  cost  of 
coal  in  Great  Britain,  as  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing, or  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  every  industry. 

I  commend  to  you  as  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
as  men  dealing  directly  with  our  commerce,  with  our 
industry,  with  our  finance,  as  men  taking  a  wide  and 
sympathetic  view  of  public  problems  and  public  move- 
ments, I  submit  to  you  that  every  American  owes  it 
to  his  country  to  make  every  possible  effort  to  under- 
stand the  causes  that  are  at  work  in  bringing  about 
this  present  situation,  and  by  every  act  and  counsel  of 
his  own  contribute  all  that  lies  in  his  power  toward 
relief  from  these  conditions.  Those  upon  whom  they 
rest  with  the  greatest  heaviness,  those  whose  emotions 
make  it  impossible  for  them  to  think  calmly  and  clearly 
concerning  them,  like  the  lion  in  his  cage,  of  which  I 
spoke  a  moment  ago,  feel  revolution  in  their  hearts. 
They  say:  "Let  us  tear  down;  nothing  could  be  worse 


>  THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING  113 

than  this.  Let  us  see  what  destruction  has  to  give,  if 
construction  be  not  quickly  forthcoming." 

That  is  the  meaning  of  these  ominous  words  to  which 
the  chairman  has  referred.  That  is  the  meaning  of 
the  ominous  and  significant  happenings  in  the  great 
political  and  industrial  capitals  of  the  world,  from 
southeastern  Europe  clear  over  to  these  United  States. 
It  means  that  human  feeling  and  human  emotion  must 
find  some  kind  of  expression  in  the  hope  of  gaining 
relief,  if  human  intelligence  and  human  reason  are  not 
at  our  disposal  as  a  people,  to  guide  us  to  a  solution 
that  is  constructive,  that  is  wise,  that  is  just  to  every 
individual,  every  group,  and  every  interest  in  this  land, 
and  that  will  make  this  new  America  that  we  are  build- 
ing finer  and  more  just  and  more  splendid  and  more 
prosperous  than  ever  before. 

What  would  we  not  give,  in  an  hour  like  this,  for  the 
sturdy  Americanism,  the  public  virtue,  and  the  per- 
sonal courage  of  Grover  Cleveland  and  Theodore 
Roosevelt  ? 


VI 
THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  February  16,  1918 


THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 

The  war  which  now  involves  the  whole  world  is,  on 
the  part  of  the  Allies,  avowedly  a  war  not  for  con- 
quest, for  revenge,  or  for  economic  advantage,  but  a 
war  to  restore  the  rule  of  law  and  to  establish  durable 
peace.  No  other  war  has  ever  been  fought  for  a  like 
motive.  This  explains  the  fact  that  it  has  been  entered 
upon  by  the  several  allied  peoples,  not  with  shouting, 
with  excitement,  or  with  wild  demonstration,  but  with 
restraint,  with  firm  conviction,  and  with  stern  resolve. 
The  aim  of  the  war  is  to  stop  war  so  far  as  this  is 
humanly  possible. 

If,  in  the  past,  war  has  seemed  to  be  a  biological 
necessity,  an  essential  part  of  the  struggle  for  existence, 
it  is  only  because  the  world  had  not  risen  to  the  plane 
of  substituting  moral  co-operation  for  physical  compe- 
tition. A  materialistic  world,  bent  only  on  profits  and 
on  accumulation,  is  likely  always  to  be  a  world  that 
plans  and  invites  war.  On  the  other  hand,  a  world 
that  is  built  on  a  foundation  of  moral  and  spiritual 
insight  and  conviction  will  be  a  world  from  which  war 
is  excluded  by  every  means  that  man  can  devise. 

In  order  to  tread  the  road  to  a  durable  peace,  we 
must  grasp  not  only  the  exact  facts  as  they  relate  to 
the  origin  and  prosecution  of  the  war  on  the  part  of 

117 


u8  THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 

the  Central  Empires,  but  also  the  underlying  causes 
which  conspired  to  bring  the  war  about. 

To  say  that  the  war  sprang  from  the  desire  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary to  oppress 'Serbia,  or  from  the  conflicting 
ambitions  of  Russia  and  Germany  in  southeastern 
Europe,  or  from  commercial  rivalry  between  Germany 
and  Great  Britain,  is  simply  to  delude  oneself  with 
superficial  appearances.  It  is  a  case  of  camouflage. 
The  cause  of  the  war  and  the  reason  that  the  war  was 
inevitable  (as  we  can  now  see)  is  a  conflict  of  ideals  in 
the  life  of  the  world.  It  is  clear  now  that  the  old 
notion  of  a  world-dominating  power  was  not  dead. 
This  was  the  notion  which  sent  Alexander  the  Great 
and  his  army  into  Asia.  This  was  the  notion  which 
built  up  the  legions  and  inspired  the  policy  of  ancient 
Rome.  This  was  the  notion  which  took  possession  of 
the  mind  of  Charlemagne.  This  was  the  notion  which 
harnessed  to  its  service  the  dynamic  energy  and  the 
military  genius  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  This  notion 
was  not,  as  men  generally  thought  in  1914,  dead  and 
gone  and  a  matter  for  the  historian  alone.  It  was  first 
slumbering  and  then  taking  active  form  in  the  minds 
of  the  ruling  caste  of  the  German  Empire.  With  them 
it  was  based  upon  a  philosophy  of  history  and  of  life 
which  made  the  German  people,  like  the  Hebrews  of 
old,  the  chosen  partners  of  God  himself  in  the  subjec- 
tion and  civilization  of  the  world. 

When  this  notion  took  possession  of  so  powerful,  so 
active-minded,  and  so  highly  disciplined  a  people  as 
the  Germans,  it  became  only  a  question  of  time  when 


THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE  119 

it  must  find  itself  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  with  the 
opposing  principle.  This  is  the  dominating  fact  which 
stands  out  above  and  beyond  all  particular  explana- 
tions of  the  origin  of  the  war.  The  war  is  at  bottom  a 
final  struggle  between  the  principle  of  world-domina- 
tion and  the  principle  of  a  group  of  friendly,  co-operat- 
ing nations,  all  equal  in  sovereignty  and  in  dignity  in 
the  eye  of  the  world's  law,  however  varied  they  may 
be  in  resources  and  in  power. 

That  with  which  we  are  at  war,  therefore,  is  not  a 
people  or  a  race,  but  an  idea.  We  should  have  had  to 
be  at  war  with  that  idea  no  matter  what  people  or 
what  race  had  acted  as  its  agents.  If  this  idea  of 
world-domination  had  been  adopted  by  Italy,  and  if 
Italy  had  attacked  the  world  in  its  interest,  we  should 
be  at  war  with  Italy.  If  this  idea  of  world-domination 
had  been  adopted  by  Japan,  and  if  Japan  had  attacked 
the  world  in  its  interest,  we  should  be  at  war  with 
Japan.  If  this  idea  of  world-domination  had  been 
adopted  by  Russia,  and  if  Russia  had  attacked  the 
world  in  its  interest,  we  should  be  at  war  with  Russia. 
But  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  idea  was  adopted  by  Ger- 
many, and  it  was  Germany  which  attacked  the  world 
in  its  interest;  therefore  we  are  at  war  with  Germany. 

The  road  to  durable  peace  begins  at  the  point  where 
this  false  notion  of  world-domination  is  given  up  once 
for  all.  Commercial  interpenetration,  financial  con- 
trol, and  military  dominance  are  the  three  forms  in 
which  the  lust  for  world-power  manifests  itself.  A  free 
world  made  up  of  independent,  liberty-loving  nations 


120     THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 

must  combine  to  prevent  any  one  of  these.  The 
liberty-loving  nations  have  almost  with  unanimity  now 
combined  in  this  war  for  that  very  purpose. 

A  false  idea  is  not  really  conquered  until  it  is  over- 
thrown in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  entertained  it. 
What  we  must  reach,  therefore,  is  the  mind,  the  con- 
science, and  the  heart  of  the  German  people.  We 
must  by  military  defeat  compel  them  to  leave  off  look- 
ing for  new  worlds  to  conquer  and  turn  their  thought 
inward  to  prepare  the  way  for  those  same  ideas  of 
co-operation  between  nations,  of  the  sacredness  of 
treaty  obligations,  of  the  rights  of  small  nations,  and 
of  the  duties  of  great  powers  toward  submerged  nation- 
alities which  are  now  part  of  the  mental  furniture  of 
liberal-minded  men  and  women  throughout  the  world. 
If  in  1848  the  aspirations  of  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
German  people  had  not  been  disappointed  and  crushed, 
the  history  of  the  past  fifty  years  might  have  been 
written  in  letters  of  gold  instead  of  in  letters  of  so 
much  blood. 

It  has  been  plain,  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne,  that 
Germany  and  her  allies  could  not  win  this  war.  The 
history  of  the  conflict  from  September  6,  1914,  has 
been  one  of  varying  fortunes,  but,  viewed  in  the  largest 
possible  way,  it  is  a  history  of  slow  but  sure  German 
defeat.  The  amazing  exhibition  of  military  power 
made  by  France  and  by  the  citizen-soldiers  of  Great 
Britain  has  been  adequate  to  hold  in  check  the  enor- 
mous and  highly  trained  armies  of  the  Central  Empires. 
Distress,  unhappiness,  and  grave  doubt  as  to  the  out- 


THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE  121 

come  and  issues  of  the  war  are  now  wide-spread  in  Ger- 
many and  in  Austria-Hungary.  All  these  facts  con- 
tribute to  the  breaking  down  of  the  zeal  for  world- 
domination  and  increase  the  chance  of  a  durable  peace 
to  follow  the  war. 

The  terms  of  that  peace  have  been  stated  at  intervals 
for  three  and  one-half  years  past  by  some  of  the  leading 
responsible  statesmen  of  the  world.  The  early  declara- 
tions of  Mr.  Asquith  and  of  M.  Briand  could  hardly 
be  improved.  The  later  ones  of  the  Prime  Minister 
of  England  and  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
have  awakened  resounding  echoes  throughout  the  world 
and  have  been  listened  to  even  by  the  peoples  with 
whom  we  are  at  war.  It  is  quite  idle,  however,  to  talk 
of  a  negotiated  peace  if  by  that  we  mean  a  peace  that 
shall  leave  the  vital  issues  of  the  war  unsettled.  The 
result  would  be  not  a  peace  but  an  armistice.  This 
would  last  until  our  children,  or  our  children's  children, 
armed  to  the  teeth  and  bearing  meanwhile  the  crush- 
ing burden  of  huge  military  establishments,  took  up 
again  the  task  that  we  laid  down  without  having  car- 
ried it  to  accomplishment.  That  would  not  be  a  for- 
tunate or  an  honorable  legacy  for  this  generation  to 
leave  to  its  successors.  We  must  persist  with  stead- 
fastness and  with  all  possible  speed  until  the  war  is 
definitively  won  and  until  our  enemies  admit  that 
they  have  lost  in  the  combat  which  they  forced  upon 
the  world. 

When  that  end  has  been  accomplished,  the  world 
will  have  travelled  a  long  way  on  the  road  toward  a 


122  THE  ROAD  TO  DURABLE  PEACE 

durable  peace.  While  it  is  true  that  the  coming  inter- 
national organization  and  the  coming  international 
economic  relationships  will  powerfully  aid  in  establish- 
ing and  in  maintaining  peace,  yet,  after  all,  the  main 
thing  is  to  remove  from  the  world  a  notion  and  a  pur- 
pose that  compel  armaments  and  that  eventually  force 
war.  That  notion  and  that  purpose  are  those  of  world- 
domination.  The  cry  Weltmacht  oder  Niedergang  comes 
from  a  shallow  mind  and  from  a  hardened  heart. 
The  alternative  to  Weltmacht  is  not  Niedergang.  It  is 
rather  membership  in  a  family  of  nations,  each  one  of 
which  is  possessed  of  what  I  have  described  as  the 
international  mind.  This  is  nothing  else  than  that 
habit  of  thinking  of  foreign  relations  and  business,  and 
that  habit  of  dealing  with  them,  which  regard  the 
several  nations  of  the  civilized  world  as  friendly  and 
co-operating  equals  in  aiding  the  progress  of  civilization, 
in  developing  commerce  and  industry,  and  in  spread- 
ing enlightenment  and  culture  throughout  the  world. 
Given  this,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  establish  and  main- 
tain an  international  organization  to  keep  the  peace 
of  the  world,  as  well  as  to  establish  and  maintain  inter- 
national economic  relationships  that  shall  promote 
human  happiness  and  human  satisfaction.  Without 
this  condition,  all  schemes  for  international  organiza- 
tion and  international  co-operation  are  futile,  and  will 
not  long  ward  off  a  disaster  which  takes  its  origin  in 
wrong  and  false  ideas  planted  in  the  hearts  of  men  and 
nations. 


VII 
A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 


Written  for  the  London  Daily  Chronicle 
Published  July  27,  1918 


A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  experiences  of  the  war  have  carried  far  forward 
the  time-old  project  to  bring  about  closer  and  better 
co-operation  between  nations  in  establishing  and 
maintaining  order  and  justice  throughout  the  world. 
The  dreams  of  the  seers  of  past  centuries  can  shortly 
be  realized.  Out  of  the  present  alliance  of  free  demo- 
cratic peoples  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  build  the  struc- 
ture of  a  league  or  society  of  nations  which,  without 
attempting  too  much,  will  at  least  put  into  effect  the 
lessons  taught  by  the  present  war,  and  erect  the  stout- 
est sort  of  a  barrier  against  the  recurrence  of  so  ter- 
rible a  calamity. 

A  league  to  establish  and  to  enforce  the  rules  of 
international  law  and  conduct  is  now  in  existence, 
with  Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  and  the  United 
States  as  its  most  potent  members.  These  nations 
and  those  associated  with  them  have  already,  in  effect, 
united  under  a  single  command  their  fighting  armies, 
brought  into  closest  co-operation  their  navies,  pooled 
their  mercantile  shipping,  their  financial  resources, 
their  food-supplies,  and  their  munitions  of  war.  What 
seemed  quite  impossible  five  years  ago  has  now  been 
easily  and  smoothly  accomplished  under  the  pressure 
of  the  supreme  need  of  resisting  the  Teutonic  attempt 
to  reduce  the  free  nations  of  the  world  to  the  position 

125 


126  A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

of  serfs  under  the  domination  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government. 

This  league  should  be  a  permanent  addition  to  the 
world's  organization  for  order  and  peaceable  progress. 
Upon  its  firm  and  permanent  establishment  three  con- 
sequences will  necessarily  follow:  First,  there  can  be 
no  separate  alliances  or  ententes  of  a  political  or  mili- 
tary character  between  the  nations  included  in  the 
league.  Second,  there  can  be  a  speedy  reduction  of 
armaments,  both  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  taxation 
and  to  turn  the  minds  of  the  nations  away  from  in- 
ternational war,  to  prevent  which  will  be  one  of  the 
chief  aims  of  such  a  league.  Third,  the  most  favored 
nation  clause  must  be  made  applicable  to  all  members 
of  the  league,  whenever  treaties  of  commerce  are  con- 
cluded between  any  two  or  more  of  the  nations  that 
are  included  in  it.  This  will  either  greatly  lessen,  or 
wholly  remove,  one  of  the  strongest  economic  tempta- 
tions to  international  war. 

The  International  Court  of  Justice  urged  by  the 
American  delegation  at  the  second  Hague  Conference 
should  now  be  called  into  being.  This  court  would 
have  the  same  jurisdiction  over  questions  affecting  in- 
ternational relations  and  international  law  that  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  over  all  cases 
in  law  and  equity  arising  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  and  treaties  made  under  its  authority. 
A  somewhat  similar  jurisdiction  already  attaches 
within  the  British  Empire  to  the  Judicial  Committee 
of  the  Privy  Council.  The  enforcement,  when  neces- 


A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  127 

sary,  of  the  findings  of  this  court,  should  be  a  matter 
of  joint  international  action  in  accordance  with  a 
definite  plan  to  be  determined  upon  when  the  court  is 
established.  The  principle  upon  which  this  action 
will  rest  has  been  stated  with  characteristic  precision 

by  Mr.  Asquith  when  he  said  that  the  rule  of  the  au- 

*$.  s,  r 

thority  of  an  international  court  "must  be  supported 
in  case  of  need  by  the  strength  of  all;  that  is,  in  the 
last  resort,  by  armed  force."  For  the  success  of  this 
court  it  is  imperative  that  secret  international  under- 
standings be  deprived  of  any  validity  whatever  in 
international  law.  It  should  be  provided  that,  as  a 
condition  of  the  validity  in  international  law  of  any 
treaty  between  two  contracting  powers,  a  copy  of 
it  must  be  deposited  immediately  upon  its  ratification 
in  the  archives  of  the  international  court  of  justice 
at  The  Hague.  There  would  then  be  at  least  one 
official  public  depositary  for  every  existing  valid 
treaty. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  any  such  plan 
of  international  co-operation  as  this  league  of  nations 
would  involve  the  giving  up  by  each  nation  included 
in  the  league  of  the  absolute  right  of  its  government 
to  deal  finally  and  without  appeal  except  to  war  with 
questions  arising  out  of  treaties  or  relations  between 
itself  and  some  other  government.  Little  serious  > 
progress  can  be  made  in  getting  rid  of  war  and  in  better 
organizing  the  world  until  the  free  peoples  are  ready  ' 
to  have  their  several  governments  take  this  long  step 
forward. 


128  A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

It  is  important  that  this  league  of  nations  should 
begin  by  not  attempting  too  much.  The  line  of  least 
resistance,  and  therefore  of  greatest  possible  progress, 
is  to  lay  stress  upon  the  power  and  authority  of  a  single 
international  judicial  authority,  and  to  accustom  the 
public  opinion  of  the  world  to  seek  and  to  defer  to  the 
findings  of  such  authority.  All  international  agree- 
ments between  members  of  the  league  would  in  effect 
be  acts  of  international  legislation,  and  in  due  time 
some  formal  international  legislative  body  might  be 
brought  into  existence.  It  would  be  much  better, 
however,  to  give  this  body  a  chance  to  grow  up  natu- 
rally, rather  than  to  attempt  to  bring  it  into  existence 
as  part  of  a  logical  and  systematically  worked-out  plan. 

Such  a  league  of  nations  as  is  here  outlined  will  rest 
upon  a  moral  foundation.  Its  aim  will  be  to  advance 
the  good  order,  the  satisfaction,  and  the  happiness  of 
the  world.  It  will  not  be,  and  should  not  be,  merely 
a  league  to  enforce  peace.  A  league  of  that  name  might 
well  rest  solely  upon  force  and  entirely  overlook  both 
law  and  equity.  Doubtless  Germany  and  Austria- 
Hungary  now  feel  that  they  are  joint  and  several  mem- 
bers of  a  highly  meritorious  league  to  enforce  peace — 
peace  upon  their  own  terms  and  as  they  conceive  it. 
A  league  of  nations  that  aims  to  declare  and  to  enforce 
principles  of  international  law  and  justice  will  of  neces- 
sity be  a  league  to  establish  peace,  because  it  will  be 
a  league  to  establish  those  foundations  upon  which 
alone  permanent  peace  can  rest. 

There  is  no  good  reason  why  there  should  be  any 


A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  129 

further  delay  in  bringing  this  league  formally  into 
existence.  Even  while  military  and  naval  operations 
are  being  pressed  forward  to  that  certain  victory  which 
will  one  day  be  theirs,  this  league  should  be  formally 
established  and  international  organs  created  by  it  to 
prepare  systematically  and  scientifically  for  promptly 
dealing  with  the  grave  economic,  social,  and  political 
problems  that  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  the  demobili- 
zation of  armies,  and  the  new  world  conditions  that 
are  to  be  the  result  of  the  overthrow  of  Prussian  mili- 
tarism will  certainly  bring  forward  for  quick  solution. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  make  a  better  statement  of 
the  rights  and  duties  of  nations  than  those  adopted 
by  the  American  Institute  of  International  Law  at 
Washington  on  January  6,  1916,  and  supplemented 
by  the  same  body  at  Havana,  Republic  of  Cuba,  on 
January  23,  1917. 


VIII 

AMERICAN    OPINION    AND    PROBLEMS    OF 

PEACE 


A  statement  published  in  Echo  de  Paris,  December  5,  1918, 
and  in  the  London  Observer,  December  8,  1918 


AMERICAN   OPINION   AND    PROBLEMS    OF 

PEACE 

The  American  people  approach  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence in  a  very  fine  and  broad-minded  spirit  but  with- 
out understanding  the  specific  policies  which  they 
should  consider  and  support  and  without  any  commit- 
ments to  such  policies.  The  public  statements  of  the 
President  have  been  almost  universally  and  perhaps 
purposely  couched  in  vague  and  general  terms,  and 
the  more  specific  policies  outlined  by  Senator  Lodge 
were,  of  course,  not  advanced  on  behalf  of  the  Admin- 
istration. 

There  are  three  general  phrases  that  the  American 
people  have  been  hearing  constantly.  They  are  "self- 
determination,"  "a  League  of  Nations,"  and  "the 
freedom  of  the  seas."  The  first  relates  to  the  thou- 
sand-year-old problem  of  nationality;  the  second  to 
the  two-thousand-year-old  problem  of  a  better  world- 
order;  and  the  third  to  a  specific  and  highly  impor- 
tant item  in  that  world-order. 

The  American  people  believe  in  the  self-determina- 
tion of  peoples  and  in  the  principle  of  nationality  in- 
volving national  consciousness,  national  organization, 
national  tradition,  and  national  economic  life.  For 
this  reason  they  are  ready  to  support  with  complete 
unanimity  policies  permitting  the  Czecho-Slovaks,  the 

133 


134  AMERICAN  OPINION 

JugoSlavs,  and  the  Poles  to  organize  their  own  in- 
dependent governments  and  to  take  their  places  in 
the  family  of  nations.  For  this  reason  they  have 
applauded  the  return  of  Alsace-Lorraine  to  France, 
they  will  support  the  return  of  northern  Slesvig  to 
Denmark,  the  return  of  the  Trentino  to  Italy,  and  of 
sectors  of  Macedonia,  Thrace,  and  Asia  Minor,  which 
have  largely  dominating  Greek  populations,  to  either 
the  sovereignty  or  the  jurisdiction  of  Greece. 

American  opinion  overwhelmingly  favors  Home  Rule 
for  Ireland,  but  the  sober,  judicious  majority  would 
regard  with  dismay  any  attempted  application  to  this 
problem  of  the  principle  of  self-determination  which 
would  disrupt  or  even  weaken  the  British  Empire,  since 
in  every  case  except  as  to  the  still  unsolved  problem 
of  Ireland  the  British  Imperial  system  has  been  a 
veritable  nest  for  the  hatching  out  of  new,  free,  and 
self-governing  peoples. 

So  far  as  the  principle  of  self-determination  is  con- 
cerned, therefore,  American  public  opinion  will  be 
neither  timid  on  the  one  hand  nor  chauvinistic  on  the 
other. 

The  possibility  of  a  League  of  Nations  has  been 
discussed  for  centuries,  and  probably  Metternich  and 
Talleyrand  thought  just  such  a  League  was  being 
organized  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  one  hundred  and 
four  years  ago.  The  foundations  of  that  structure 
were  insecure,  however,  for  it  was  built  on  the  shift- 
ing sands  of  reaction,  of  imperialism,  of  international 
rivalry,  and  of  military  power. 


AND  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  135 

Thus  far  two  general  and  very  different  notions  as 
to  the  League  of  Nations  have  found  currency:  the 
one  is  that  supported  by  orthodox  socialists  and  has 
in  mind  the  destruction  of  all  the  essential  elements 
and  characteristics  of  nationality  in  order  to  bring 
about  what  I  have  sometimes  called  a  colloidal  or  jelly- 
like  internationalism,  without  real  nations.  This  is 
the  notion  of  the  Lenines  and  the  Trotskys,  of  the 
Liebknechts  and  the  I.  W.  W.  sympathizers.  The 
achievement  of  this  ideal  would  bring  civilization  to 
an  end,  make  order  impossible,  destroy  liberty,  and  put 
mankind  back  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  from  which 
it  began  to  mount  when  the  Roman  Empire  fell  to 
pieces. 

The  other  notion  of  the  League  of  Nations  involves 
what  I  have  called  crystalline  or  true  internationalism. 
In  this  each  nation  remains  self-conscious,  self-deter- 
mined, and  ambitious  in  its  own  right,  and  takes  its 
place  in  a  new  international  structure  as  an  indepen- 
dent element — like  a  single  crystal  in  an  ordered  group 
of  crystals. 

In  this  case  the  group  or  league  becomes  stronger  or 
more  powerful  according  as  the  nations  that  compose 
it  become  stronger  and  more  powerful. 

True  internationalism  must  be  built  on  the  union  of 
strong  and  self-respecting  nations.  False  internation- 
alism would  weaken  or  destroy  together  those  nations 
which  accept  it. 

The  American  people  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  false  internationalism  of  Lenine  and  Trotsky,  Lieb- 


136  AMERICAN  OPINION 

knecht  and  the  I.  W.  W.  They  know  perfectly  well 
that  these  men  are  enemies  of  a  democratic  republic, 
whether  in  Russia,  Germany,  or  the  United  States. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  American  people  will  support, 
not  with  unanimity,  by  any  means,  but  by  a  substan- 
tial majority,  a  well-considered  and  thoroughly  prac- 
tical project  for  a  League  of  Nations  which  shall  be 
based  upon  the  principles  of  true  internationalism. 

There  are  those  who  urge  that  the  example  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  should  be  followed 
in  organizing  this  League,  that  precise  and  definitive 
articles  of  government  should  be  adopted,  that  an  inter- 
national legislature,  executive  and  judiciary,  should  be 
erected,  and  that  the  part  of  the  nations  in  the  new 
organization  should  be  similar  to  that  of  the  States  in 
the  United  States. 

There  are  two  difficulties  in  the  way  of  so  ambitious 
a  programme.  The  first  is  that  the  public  opinion  of 
the  world  is  not  ready  to  support  it,  and  the  second  is 
that  some  of  the  necessary  conditions  of  success  which 
were  present  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  would  be 
lacking  in  the  case  of  such  a  League  of  Nations.  The 
United  States  met  with  a  century  of  difficulties  in  spite 
of  unity  of  language,  unity  of  tradition,  and  unity  of 
legal  system.  These  three  vitally  important  unities 
would  be  lacking  in  a  League  of  Nations  which  should 
take  the  United  States  as  its  model. 

The  true  analogy  between  the  United  States  and  a 
League  of  Nations  lies  not  on  the  surface,  but  deeper. 
It  is  found  in  the  principle  of  federation  with  its  accom- 


AND  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  137 

panying  characteristics  of  legal  and  economic  co-opera- 
tion. American  opinion  is  ready  for  this  if  it  be  guided 
by  a  policy  of  lofty  patriotism,  broad  international 
service,  and  sincere  democratic  feeling. 

What  the  American  people  are  asking  to-day  is  this: 
Given  conditions  as  they  now  exist  in  the  world,  how 
shall  we  proceed  to  form  an  effective  League  of  Nations  ? 
This  question  the  head  of  the  American  Government 
has  not  yet  attempted  to  answer.  The  most  practical 
procedure  appears  to  be  the  following:  The  Allied 
Powers  which  have  won  the  war  have  been  for  the 
purposes  of  war,  and  at  the  present  moment  are,  a 
League  of  Nations.  They  have  unified  their  interna- 
tional policies.  They  have  put  their  armies  and  their 
navies  under  single  commands:  they  have  pooled  all 
their  resources  in  shipping,  food,  munitions,  and  credit. 
Let  these  nations,  assembled  by  their  representatives 
at  Versailles,  declare  themselves  to  be  a  League  of 
Nations  organized  for  the  precise  purposes  for  which 
the  war  was  fought,  and  with  which  their  several  peoples 
are  entirely  familiar,  namely,  the  definition  and  pro- 
tection of  standards  of  international  right  and  justice, 
the  sanctity  of  international  obligations,  and  the  right 
of  the  smaller  and  less  numerous  peoples  to  be  free 
from  attack  or  domination  by  their  larger  and  more 
powerful  neighbors. 

As  a  beginning  nothing  more  is  needed.  There  is 
no  necessity  for  an  international  constitution,  no 
necessity  for  an  elaborate  international  government 
machine,  in  order  that  the  great  enterprise  may  be 


138  AMERICAN  OPINION 

launched.  So  far  as  these  may  be  needed,  they  very 
well  may  come  later. 

The  second  step  should  be  to  invite  those  nations 
that  have  been  neutral  in  the  war  to  join  the  League 
on  condition  that  they  formally  give  adhesion  to  the 
three  ends  or  purposes  for  which  the  League  is  organ- 
ized. 

The  third  step  should  be  to  invite  the  recently  sub- 
merged and  oppressed  nationalities  to  present  before 
the  League  their  several  cases  for  hearing  and  deter- 
mination. When  these  have  fully  shown  the  basis  of 
their  geographical  and  political  claims,  and  when  the 
League  of  Nations  has  been  satisfied  as  to  the  justice 
of  these  claims,  then  the  petitioners  should  be  invited 
to  form  their  own  governments;  and  when  they  have 
done  so,  they  should  be  admitted  to  the  League  of 
Nations  as  independent  units. 

While  this  process  is  going  on  and  so  long  afterward 
as  may  be  necessary,  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary 
should  be  kept  outside  the  League.  It  is  inconceiva- 
ble that  the  governments  and  peoples  which  almost 
disrupted  and  overthrew  the  civilized  world  should  be 
invited  to  confer  as  to  the  method  of  the  world's  re- 
construction, or  as  to  their  own  punishment  for  their 
own  sins,  or  as  to  the  form  of  government  to  be  adopted 
by  the  peoples  whom  they  have  so  long  dominated  or 
terrorized. 

When  the  League  of  Nations  shall  be  wholly  satis- 
fied that  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary,  and  the 
Germans  and  Austro-Hungarians,  have  washed  from 


AND  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  139 

their  hands  the  blood  of  Belgium  and  Serbia,  have 
really  repented  for  such  crimes  as  the  Lusitania  and 
Sussex,  and  have  exorcised  the  evil  spirits  that  have 
possessed  them,  then  and  then  only  should  Germany 
and  Austria-Hungary  be  taken  back  into  the  family 
which  they  jointly  attempted  to  murder. 

I  see  no  practical  way  other  than  this  by  which  any 
headway  can  be  made  with  regard  to  the  project  for 
a  League  of  Nations.  If  there  be  an  attempt  to  build 
it  on  the  foundations  of  sentimentality  or  artificiality 
or  neglect  of  the  obvious  facts,  the  project  will  fail  and 
one  of  the  greatest  opportunities  growing  out  of  the 
World  War  will  be  lost. 

The  resumption  of  the  work  of  Hague  Conferences 
and  the  building  of  an  international  judicial  and  eco- 
nomic structure  would  follow  the  foundation  of  such 
a  League  as  I  suggest  as  a  matter  of  course  and  in  due 
time. 

The  American  public  is  wholly  mystified  as  to  what 
is  meant  by  "freedom  of  the  seas."  That  phrase  had 
a  pretty  definite  meaning  as  late  as  the  time  of  the 
American  Civil  War,  but  subsequent  events  have  de- 
prived that  meaning  of  much  significance.  In  time  of 
peace  the  seas  are  and  long  have  been  entirely  free. 
In  time  of  war  they  have  always  been  commanded  by 
the  possessor  of  the  strongest  navy.  If  that  condi- 
tion had  not  prevailed  in  1914  Germany  would  have 
won  the  war  just  ended  within  twelve  months  from 
the  time  of  its  beginning.  With  Germany's  army  in 
a  position  to  do  as  it  chose,  and  the  naval  hands  of 


140  AMERICAN  OPINION 

Great  Britain  and  France  tied  behind  their  backs,  the 
issue  raised  by  Germany  on  August  4,  1914,  would 
not  long  have  remained  uncertain.  The  mastery  of 
the  seas  by  the  British  navy  has  proved  to  be  the 
most  powerful  single  element  in  bringing  about  the 
downfall  of  militarism. 

The  world  realizes  that  fact,  and  will  not  support 
any  proposal  which  would  change  this  condition  in 
essence,  although  it  may  do  so  in  form.  Unquestion- 
ably the  Allies  have  good  reason  to  approve  those 
conditions  on  the  sea  which  just  now  have  prevailed. 
The  cowardly  and  wicked  use  of  the  submarine  by 
Germany  was  the  greatest  menace  to  the  freedom  of 
the  sea  that  history  records.  The  Barbary  pirates 
and  roving  privateers  were  negligible  when  compared 
with  the  submarines. 

If  the  phrase  "freedom  of  the  seas"  has  to  do  with 
access  to  navigable  waters  by  landlocked  people  or 
with  unprivileged  use  of  international  straits,  water- 
ways, and  canals,  well  and  good.  American  opinion 
will  support  "freedom  of  the  seas"  when  used  in  such 
a  sense. 

The  American  heart  has  been  touched  by  this  war 
as  never  before.  The  sufferings  and  sorrows,  the  pa- 
tience and  endurance,  the  heroism  and  sacrifice  of  the 
Allies,  particularly  of  France  and  Great  Britain,  have 
stirred  America  to  the  depths.  The  American  people 
realize  that  the  difficulties  of  peace  are  to  be  quite 
comparable  to  the  dangers  and  disasters  of  war,  and 
that  where  the  ruling  principles  are  to  have  so  many 


AND  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  141 

and  so  important  concrete  illustrations,  there  naturally 
will  arise  differences  of  opinion  more  or  less  sharp, 
and  conflicts  of  temperament  more  or  less  open.  The 
American  people  well  remember  the  similar  difficul- 
ties and  conflict  that  arose  between  wholly  patriotic 
and  high-minded  men  in  their  own  country  at  the 
close  of  the  American  Revolution  and  again  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War.  We  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  patient  and  endeavor  to  see  beyond  and  behind 
these  superficial  conflicts,  first,  because  our  people  now 
understand  Europe  as  they  never  did  before,  and 
second,  because  we  are  bound  to  the  victorious  peoples 
of  Europe  by  stronger  and  more  affectionate  ties  than 
ever  have  existed  in  the  past. 


IX 
ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE 


A  statement  printed  in  the  New  York  Tribune, 
February  27,  1919 


ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE 

A  society  of  nations  is  wholly  in  accord  with  Repub- 
lican traditions,  Republican  principles,  and  well-estab- 
lished Republican  policy.  The  only  formal  declaration 
known  to  me  to  have  been  made  on  this  subject  by 
any  party  convention  in  the  United  States  is  that 
adopted  by  the  Republican  State  Convention  held  at 
Saratoga  on  July  19,  1918.  That  declaration  reads  as 
follows : 

We  favor  the  immediate  creation  by  the  United  States  and  its 
allies  of  a  league  of  nations  to  establish,  from  time  to  time  to 
modify,  and  to  enforce,  the  rules  of  international  law  and  conduct. 
The  purpose  of  this  league  should  be,  not  to  displace  patriotism 
or  devotion  and  loyalty  to  national  ideals  and  traditions,  but 
rather  to  give  to  these  new  opportunities  of  expression  in  co- 
operation with  the  other  liberty  loving  nations  of  the  world.  To 
membership  in  this  league  any  nation  might  be  admitted  that 
possesses  a  responsible  government  which  will  abide  by  those 
rules  of  law  and  equity,  and  by  those  principles  of  international 
justice  and  morality  which  are  accepted  by  civilized  people. 

It  would  be  most  unfortunate  for  this  question  to 
become  a  partisan  one,  or  to  fail  of  consideration  of  its 
merits  regardless  of  any  party  declaration  hitherto 
made.  Nevertheless,  it  may  be  helpful  for  Republicans 
to  ask  whether  the  draft  plan  that  has  been  submitted 
for  discussion  and  amendment,  as  a  result  of  the  pre- 

145 


146  ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE 

liminary  work  of  the  Peace  Conference  at  Paris,  is  or 
is  not  a  league  of  the  type  described  in  the  declaration 
just  quoted.  If  it  is  a  league  of  this  type,  it  will  be 
a  logical  deduction  from  the  foreign  policies  of  the 
McKinley,  Roosevelt,  and  Taft  administrations,  illu- 
minated by  the  lessons  of  the  war.  If  it  is  not  a  league 
of  this  type,  then  we  may  well  strive  to  shape  it  so  that 
it  will  become  such  while  the  plan  is  still  open  to  dis- 
cussion and  amendment.  Blindly  to  oppose  any  bet- 
ter form  of  world-organization  because  we  do  not  like 
some  of  the  details  of  the  plan  now  proposed,  is  politi- 
cal madness,  as  well  as  in  the  highest  degree  reactionary. 

The  draft  plan  is  so  ill-drawn  and  so  full  of  unneces- 
sary difficulties  that  its  critics  will  have  an  easy  task 
in  making  those  facts  plain  to  the  people.  The  con- 
structive critic,  however,  will  not  content  himself  with 
opposition  to  any  plan  whatsoever,  because  he  does  not 
like  some  of  the  points  of  this  plan,  but  will  endeavor 
to  show  how  it  may  be  transformed  into  a  wiser  and 
a  better  plan. 

It  is  probable  that  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
acceptance  by  the  Senate  and  the  American  people 
generally  of  any  plan  for  a  society  of  nations  may  be 
summarized  under  two  heads:  First,  agreement  upon 
the  principles  of  international  law  and  international 
administration  which  are  hereafter  to  prevail  in  the 
world;  and,  second,  agreement  upon  a  method  for  their 
enforcement  that  will  not  displace  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. 

If  the  votes  of  the  two  Hague  conferences  of  1899 


ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE  147 

and  1907  be  taken  as  a  starting-point,  it  should  not 
be  difficult  to  put  into  the  draft  plan  a  succinct  state- 
ment of  principles  of  international  law  and  conduct 
upon  which  the  whole  civilized  world  will  agree.  The 
question  will  then  arise  as  to  the  enforcement  of  these 
principles.  There  are  grave  objections  to  any  plan 
which  will  compel  America  to  accept  responsibility 
for  matters  of  international  administration  in  Europe, 
in  Asia,  or  in  Africa,  and  there  are  equally  grave  objec- 
tions to  any  plan  that  will  substitute  for  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  international  control  on  the  part  of  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  and  Asia  of  matters  affecting  the 
American  continents  alone.  It  might  be  worth  while 
to  consider  whether,  given  a  single  code  of  principles 
of  international  law  and  international  administration, 
the  world  might  not  then  be  divided  into  three  admin- 
istrative areas:  First,  Europe,  Africa,  and  the  parts  of 
Asia  immediately  adjoining  Europe  and  Africa;  second, 
the  American  continents,  and,  third,  the  Orient,  in- 
cluding Japan,  China,  and  Siam. 

Should  these  three  administrative  areas  be  created, 
all  owing  allegiance  to  a  common  code  of  law  and 
principle,  then  the  world  would  have,  in  effect,  a  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  for  each  area,  and  the  original  Monroe 
Doctrine  would  be  preserved  unharmed  and  un- 
amended.  Should  any  exceptional  breach  of  inter- 
national law  and  order  take  place  within  a  given 
administrative  area,  as  when  Germany  invaded  Bel- 
gium in  1914,  which  the  forces  of  law  and  order  within 
that  area  were  unable  to  subdue,  the  similar  forces  in 


148  ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE 

one  or  both  of  the  other  administrative  areas  could 
then  be  called  upon  to  take  part  in  upholding  the  prin- 
ciples to  which  all  alike  had  given  allegiance. 

Americans,  and  especially  Republicans,  will  recall 
two  striking  sentences  in  President  McKinley's  last 
speech,  delivered  at  Buffalo,  on  September  5,  1901: 

No  nation  can  longer  be  indifferent  to  any  other.  .  .  . 
The  period  of  aloofness  is  past. 

These  declarations  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new 
world  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  The  proposals  contained  in  Theodore  Roose- 
velt's address  before  the  Nobel  Prize  Committee,  de- 
livered at  Christiania,  Norway,  on  May  5,  1910,  should 
not  be  overlooked  at  this  time,  since  some  of  them  go 
even  beyond  the  provisions  of  the  present  draft  plan. 
This,  for  example: 

It  would  be  a  master  stroke  if  those  great  powers  honestly  bent 
on  peace  would  form  a  league  of  peace,  not  only  to  keep  the  peace 
among  themselves,  but  to  prevent,  by  force  if  necessary,  its  being 
broken  by  others.  The  supreme  difficulty  in  connection  with  de- 
veloping the  peace  work  of  The  Hague  arises  from  the  lack  of  any 
executive  power,  of  any  police  power,  to  enforce  the  decrees  of 
the  courts. 

For  several  generations  the  American  Government 
has  had  a  large  part  in  the  development  and  establish- 
ment of  international  law  and  order.  On  many  occa- 
sions, through  resolutions  of  the  Congress,  through 
executive  declarations,  through  diplomatic  correspon- 


ALOOFNESS  IMPOSSIBLE  149 

dence,  through  special  treaties,  and  through  participa- 
tion in  numerous  international  conferences  and  conven- 
tions, the  American  people  have  exerted  far-reaching 
influence  in  making  international  law  and  in  developing 
an  international  public  opinion.  Republicans  in  par- 
ticular must  not  allow  their  justifiable  resentment  at 
the  President's  methods  and  policies  to  drive  them  into 
an  unstatesmanlike  attitude,  and  one  wholly  out  of, 
harmony  with  their  long  tradition,  on  the  greatest 
question  now  before  the  court  of  public  opinion. 


X 

WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS  ? 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Commercial  Club, 
Chicago,  Illinois,  December  14,  1912 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS  ? 

For  some  time  past  it  has  not  been  easy  to  discuss 
politics  from  the  standpoint  of  principle  in  the  United 
States.  For  nearly  twenty  years  two  powerful  and 
interesting  personalities  have  dominated  the  imagina- 
tion of  large  elements  of  the  American  people.  Since 
the  generation  passed  from  the  stage  to  whose  lot  it 
fell  to  settle  for  good  or  for  ill  the  issues  growing  out  of 
the  Civil  War,  Mr.  Bryan  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  have 
been  the  centre  points  of  American  political  discussion. 
These  two  powerful  men  have  some  characteristics  in 
common,  as  well  as  many  points  of  sharp  difference. 
The  important  fact  is  that  when  either  of  them  is 
before  the  electorate  as  a  candidate  for  high  office,  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  secure  discussion  of  any  politi- 
cal proposal  save  with  reference  to  his  personality. 
The  effect  of  this  limitation  upon  our  political  life  has 
not  always  been  happy.  Passionate  feeling  has  been 
aroused  at  a  time  when  cool  reason  was  most  necessary, 
and  blind  personal  advocacy  or  blind  personal  antag- 
onism has  taken  the  place  of  statesmanlike  examina- 
tion of  principles  and  of  policies.  At  the  moment  we 
are  at  rest  in  a  political  eddy.  The  glamour  of  candi- 
dacies and  the  rapidly  succeeding  turmoil  of  primaries, 
conventions,  and  elections  is  over  for  the  time  being. 
There  is  given  opportunity,  therefore,  to  discuss  some 

'53 


154         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

fundamental  questions  of  politics  apart  from  their 
relation  to  any  party,  to  any  candidate,  or  to  any  per- 
sonality. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  American  people  undertook 
this  task  without  either  passion  or  partisanship,  and 
with  sincerity.  Conditions  are  not  favorable  to  na- 
tional safety  and  stability  if  we  pursue  a  policy  of 
drifting,  or  if  we  permit  specific  proposals,  in  them- 
selves attractive,  to  lead  us  away  from  sound  principle. 
The  American  people  are  by  nature,  by  temperament, 
and  by  opportunity  a  people  of  constant  and  continu- 
ing progress.  They  have  never  stood  still  or  gone 
backward  in  the  past,  and  it  is  highly  unlikely  that 
they  will  so  far  change  their  nature  as  to  stand  still  or 
go  backward  in  the  near  future. 

We  are  constantly  called  upon  to  make  progress,  to 
move  forward,  and  to  adopt  policies  and  to  support 
measures  in  the  name  of  advance.  Before  taking  an 
attitude  toward  such  invitations  and  proposals,  it  is  ad- 
visable to  assure  ourselves  that  we  know  the  points  of 
the  political  compass,  and  that  we  are  certain  of  the  di- 
rection in  which  we  are  moving.  For  whether  a  man  is 
progressing  or  not  depends  not  upon  whether  he  is  in 
motion  and  the  label  that  he  bears,  but  entirely  upon 
the  direction  in  which  he  is  facing  when  he  begins  to 
move.  One  who  is  borne  by  an  avalanche  rushing 
down  the  side  of  a  mountain  in  obedience  to  the  law 
of  gravitation  is  not  moving  upward  simply  because 
he  carries  with  him  a  sign  marked  "Excelsior." 

I  should  describe  progress  in  politics  as  moving  for- 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         155 

ward  to  the  consideration  and  solution  of  new  problems 
with  intelligence  and  sympathy,  and  in  the  full  light 
of  experience  gained  and  principles  established  in  the 
past.  Change,  on  the  other  hand,  which  many  per- 
sons mistake  for  progress,  is  the  mere  restless  and  ill- 
considered  disturbance  of  condition  with  little  or  no 
regard  to  the  teachings  of  experience.  Progress  in 
politics  will  aim  to  make  government  just,  efficient, 
and  quickly  responsive  to  the  public  will,  and  to  in- 
sure, so  far  as  may  be,  equality  of  opportunity,  to- 
gether with  security  in  the  possessions  of  the  fruits 
of  one's  own  brain  and  hands. 

For  some  time  past  political  progress  has  been  urged 
upon  us  and  illustrated — indeed,  it  has  almost  been 
defined — in  terms  of  attack  upon  two  very  funda- 
mental and  far-reaching  political  principles  that  are 
said  to  be  outworn  and  harmful.  If  those  who  so  il- 
lustrate and  exemplify  progress  are  correct,  then  it  is 
clear  that  nothing  short  of  a  revolution  is  soon  to  be 
effected  in  our  American  life,  and  through  it  in  the 
world  at  large.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  wrong, 
as  I  am  profoundly  convinced  is  the  case,  then  progress 
will  lie  not  in  the  direction  toward  which  they  point, 
but  rather  in  orderly,  reasoned,  and  permanent  ad- 
vance along  the  familiar  lines  of  political  evolution 
without  disturbing  the  principles  that  they  attack, 
without  tearing  up  anything  by  the  roots,  without 
overturning  any  long-established  and  beneficent  in- 
stitution, and  without  sapping  the  well-springs  of  in- 
tellectual and  moral  independence  and  responsibility 


156         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

by  leading  the  individual  to  look  to  the  community, 
rather  than  to  his  own  efforts,  for  support. 

The  two  fundamental  and  far-reaching  principles 
to  which  I  refer  are,  first,  the  limitations  of  a  written 
constitution,  and,  second,  the  relation  that  has  hither- 
to existed  in  America  between  the  individual  and  the 
state.  We  have  lately  been  told  in  no  uncertain 
terms  that  political  progress  consists  in  throwing  off 
the  shackles  of  a  written  constitution  and  in  wholly 
altering  the  relation  that  has  hitherto  existed  between 
the  individual  and  the  state.  These  appeals  are  not 
unfamiliar  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  but  to  large 
numbers  of  thoughtful  Americans  they  have  a  strange 
and  sombre  sound.  They  are  nothing  short  of  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  the  basis  on  which 
our  entire  civilization  rests,  whether  those  who  make 
them  realize  this  or  not.  We  must  look  carefully  into 
these  two  contentions,  and,  if  we  can,  meet  and  refute 
them  with  rational  argument  and  with  historical  illus- 
tration. If  we  cannot  do  this,  then  we  must,  as  think- 
ing men,  accept  these  new  policies,  however  revolu- 
tionary they  may  seem  to  us  to  be. 

What  is  a  written  constitution  ?  What  are  its  limi- 
tations and  its  shackles  ?  A  written  constitution  is 
nothing  more  than  a  court  of  appeal  to  man's  sober 
and  historically  justified  reason  from  his  quick  acting 
and  present  impulses  and  passions.  A  written  con- 
stitution simply  marks  out  and  defines  what  has  al- 
ready been  accomplished  in  the  progress  toward  free 
government,  and  drives  a  stake,  as  it  were,  in  order 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         157 

that  we  may  return  to  it  for  guidance  when  we  need 
to  take  a  new  measurement. 

Nevertheless,  for  some  time  past  impatience  of  a 
written  constitution  has  been  marked  in  this  country 
in  many  places  and  in  many  ways.  We  have  been  told 
that  our  written  Constitution  attempted  to  bind  us 
fast  to  an  eighteenth-century  view  of  society,  and 
that  it  could  not  possibly  adapt  itself  or  be  adapted 
to  present-day  needs  and  problems.  It  is  one  mani- 
festation of  this  impatience  when  judges,  who  have 
taken  a  solemn  oath  to  obey  and  enforce  the  Consti- 
tution and  its  limitations,  are  told  from  the  platform 
and  in  the  press  that  they  should  read  into  it  some 
new  and  strange  interpretation  which  a  portion  of  the 
population  honestly  believe  is  necessary  to  the  satis- 
faction of  their  ethical  ideals  or  their  social  impulses. 
The  same  tendency  is  manifested  when  it  is  proposed 
to  recall  judges  from  their  high  positions,  not  because 
of  any  personal  offense  justifying  impeachment,  but 
because  of  their  failure  in  official  act  to  harmonize 
with  some  strongly  held  present-day  opinion.  Pre- 
cisely the  same  temper  is  shown  when  it  is  proposed 
that  the  people  at  large  shall  by  a  plenary  and  direct 
exercise  of  the  police  power  overturn  a  judicial  deci- 
sion which  puts  a  constitutional  barrier  to  some  much- 
desired  policy  or  act. 

There  would  be  justification  for  even  the  most  ex- 
treme of  these  proposals  if  our  written  Constitution 
were  unamendable;  if  it  were  really  a  strait-jacket 
into  which  our  national  life  was  long  ago  forced,  and 


158         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

which  could  only  be  worn  in  these  later  days  with  harm 
and  constant  pain.  But  the  contrary  is  the  case.  The 
Constitution  is  readily  amendable  whenever  a  large 
body  of  opinion,  widely  distributed  throughout  the 
country,  genuinely  desires  its  amendment.  We  are 
witnessing  at  the  moment  two  illustrations  of  this 
fact.  The  amendment  authorizing  the  levying  of  a 
federal  income  tax  is  well  on  its  way  to  adoption,  and 
will  almost  certainly  become  the  Sixteenth  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  within  a  few  weeks.  The 
proposal  for  the  direct  election  of  United  States  sena- 
tors has  been  adopted  by  the  constitutional  majority 
in  both  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  Senate, 
and  it  is  perfectly  plain  to  every  political  observer 
that  it  will  have  no  difficulty  in  securing  ratification 
by  the  legislatures  of  the  States.  Here  are  two  im- 
portant amendments  to  our  fundamental  law,  at  least 
one  of  which  may  prove  to  be  very  far-reaching  in  its 
effects  and  to  involve  consequences  not  now  foreseen; 
and  yet,  when  public  opinion  has  really  and  unmis- 
takably asserted  itself  in  their  support,  they  go  for- 
ward with  but  slight  interruption  or  delay  to  take  their 
place  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  whole  history  of  the  Constitution  illustrates 
this.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  hundreds  of  amend- 
ments that  have  been  proposed  from  time  to  time,  some 
of  which  have  received  a  considerable  measure  of  sup- 
port, have  failed  to  secure  incorporation  in  the  funda- 
mental law  because  the  great  mass  of  the  American 
people  were  not  interested  in  them  or  did  not  believe 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         159 

them  to  be  important.  On  the  other  hand,  the  first 
ten  amendments  were  speedily  adopted  in  order  to 
set  at  rest  certain  doubts  and  difficulties  that  had  arisen 
in  the  public  mind  at  the  time  of  the  ratification  of 
the  Constitution  itself.  The  Eleventh  Amendment 
was  adopted — not,  I  think,  wisely — to  give  effect  to 
an  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  other  than  that 
which  had  been  held  by  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  in  the  well-known  case  of  Chisholm  v.  Georgia. 
This  amendment  is  sometimes  pointed  to  as  an  illus- 
tration of  what  is  meant  by  the  recall  of  a  judicial 
decision.  This  use  of  it,  however,  rests  upon  an  entire 
misconception  of  the  facts.  So  far  from  being  the 
recall  of  a  judicial  decision,  it  was  a  formal  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  in  order  to  meet  a  general 
situation  which  a  judicial  decision  had  created.  This 
is  something  which  constitutional  government  always 
contemplates,  and  there  is  nothing  extraordinary  or 
abnormal  about  it.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  an  orderly, 
reasoned,  and  proper  way  in  which  to  exercise  the 
sovereign  power  of  the  people.  Despite  the  feeling 
that  this  particular  decision  created,  because  it  ran 
counter  to  the  extreme  State  rights  doctrine  of  the 
time,  it  took  nearly  four  years  to  secure  the  adoption 
of  the  Eleventh  Amendment.  The  Twelfth  Amend- 
ment, relating  to  the  mode  of  electing  the  President 
and  Vice-President,  was  adopted  practically  by  unan- 
imous consent,  to  remove  an  obvious  difficulty  in 
the  working  of  the  original  provisions  of  the  Consti- 
tution on  this  point.  The  history  of  the  Thirteenth, 


160         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

Fourteenth,  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  is  well  known, 
as  is  the  history  of  those  that  seem  destined  to  become 
the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth.  The  sovereign  people 
of  the  United  States  are,  then,  demonstrably  in  full 
possession  of  their  government,  and  they  have  not 
deprived  themselves  of  the  power  to  alter  or  amend 
its  fundamental  law  when  they  believe  such  alteration 
or  amendment  to  be  necessary  or  desirable. 

There  are  two  questions  that  must  be  carefully  dis- 
tinguished. The  one  relates  to  the  desirability  of 
amending  the  Constitution  in  any  specified  manner 
at  a  given  time,  and  the  other  relates  to  the  break- 
ing down  or  overriding  of  constitutional  limitations, 
whether  by  executive  usurpation  or  by  legislative  act, 
because  some  considerable  body  of  opinion  is  ready  to 
applaud  the  result.  In  the  former  case  the  issue  is 
this:  Will  the  sovereign  people  consciously  and  will- 
ingly, after  consideration  and  debate,  alter  their  fun- 
damental law  ?  In  the  latter  case  the  question  is  this : 
Will  the  people  permit  their  government  to  be  changed 
and  its  underlying  principles  modified  by  what  is  in 
effect  and  often  in  form  as  well  a  revolutionary  act  ? 

There  are  those  who  believe  and  teach  that  the  path 
of  progress  lies  in  the  direction  of  breaking  down  and 
overriding  constitutional  limitations.  It  is  essential 
to  progress  that  all  such  proposals  be  met  with  a  deter- 
mined opposition.  These  constitutional  limitations  on 
governmental  power  are  in  the  interest  of  individual 
liberty.  They  themselves  mark  the  history  of  progress 
in  government.  They  represent  what  our  ancestors 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         161 

for  scores  of  generations  have  won,  first  from  the  form- 
lessness of  anarchy,  and  later  from  the  tyranny  of  an 
individual  or  a  class.  The  reason  why  this  matter  is 
so  important  for  us  is  that  only  in  the  United  States 
has  individual  liberty  been  really  made  a  part  of  con- 
stitutional law.  Everywhere  else  it  has  only  a  statu- 
tory basis.  Germany  alone  of  modern  peoples  has 
made  progress  toward  the  position  of  the  United  States 
in  this  fundamental  matter;  but  in  Germany  the  judi- 
ciary is  dependent  upon  the  political  departments  of 
the  government,  and,  therefore,  it  lacks  authority  to 
protect  the  individual  from  encroachments  by  them. 
In  France  and  in  Great  Britain  individual  liberty  de- 
pends wholly  upon  the  passing  mood  of  a  majority  in 
the  legislative  assembly  or  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
What  is  at  stake  in  preserving  a  written  constitution 
and  its  limitations  upon  government  is  nothing  less 
than  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  themselves.  In  the 
United  States  the  people  are  sovereign.  The  Constitu- 
tion as  from  time  to  time  amended  sets  up  the  people's 
form  of  government  and  defines  the  functions  and  lim- 
itations of  its  various  officers  and  agencies.  The  gov- 
ernment has  no  authority  but  that  which  the  sovereign 
people  choose  to  intrust  to  it,  and  an  independent 
judiciary  is  established  by  the  people  in  order  to  make 
sure  that  the  executive  and  the  legislative  departments 
of  the  government  do  not  overstep  their  respective  lim- 
itations. If  these  limitations  on  government  be  re- 
moved or  nullified,  or  if  the  independent  judiciary  be 
deprived  of  its  independence,  the  effect  will  be  to 


162         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

transfer  sovereignty  from  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  the  governmental  organs  and  agencies  for  the 
time  being.  Without  constitutional  limitations,  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  would  be  as  sovereign 
as  is  the  House  of  Commons,  and  all  those  precious 
privileges  and  immunities  that  are  set  out  in  the  Con- 
stitution and  its  amendments,  and  as  to  which  the 
individual  citizen  may  appeal  to  the  judiciary  for  pro- 
tection, would  be  placed  upon  the  same  plane  as  a 
statute  authorizing  the  appointment  of  an  interstate 
commerce  commission  or  one  denouncing  a  monopoly 
or  other  act  in  restraint  of  trade.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  unconstitutional 
law  in  Great  Britain.  The  fact  that  the  Parliament 
enacts  a  law  makes  it  constitutional,  no  matter  what 
its  effect  upon  life,  liberty,  or  property  may  be;  for 
Parliament  is  sovereign.  To  propose  to  import  this 
condition  into  the  United  States  is  not  progress,  but 
reaction. 

It  may  be  asked,  what  difference  does  it  make  in 
every-day  life  whether  the  sovereignty  remains  with 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  whether  the  Con- 
gress and  the  several  legislatures  are  held  to  the  per- 
formance of  their  tasks  under  those  limitations  and 
restrictions  which  the  people  have  in  their  constitutions 
laid  upon  them,  or  whether  those  restrictions  and  lim- 
itations are  removed  and  the  sovereignty,  as  you  say, 
passes  to  the  legislative  body  itself.  The  answer  is 
this:  Any  majority,  however  small,  however  fleeting, 
however  unreasonable,  or  however  incoherent,  would 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         163 

then  have  at  its  immediate  disposal  the  life,  liberty, 
and  property  of  each  individual  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  This  may  be  a  good  form  of  government,  but 
it  is  certainly  not  the  American  form.  It  is  not  that 
republican  form  of  government  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  guaranteed  to  the  several  States. 
It  is  a  return  to  tyranny,  with  a  many-headed  majority 
in  the  place  of  power  once  held  by  the  single  despot. 
This  again  is  not  progress,  but  reaction.  It  is  a  pro- 
posal to  undo  what  history  has  so  effectively  done;  to 
give  back  to  the  mass  what  has  been  so  painfully  con- 
quered for  the  individual;  to  alter  absolutely  and  for 
the  worse  our  standards  of  judgment  and  of  accomplish- 
ment in  public  affairs.  The  harassing  of  individuals 
and  of  minorities  is  sometimes  unavoidable  in  the 
processes  of  government,  but  it  is  neither  wise  nor 
necessary  to  exalt  it  to  the  position  of  a  controlling 
principle. 

By  a  curious  perversion  of  clear  thinking,  this  issue 
is  sometimes  stated  to  be  one  between  those  who  be- 
lieve that  the  people  are  wise  enough  and  strong  enough 
to  carry  on  a  government  of  comprehensive  powers, 
and  those  who  believe  that  they  are  not.  It  is  de- 
scribed as  an  issue  between  those  who  trust  the  people 
and  those  who  distrust  the  people.  Nothing  could  be 
further  from  the  fact.  Those  who  trust  the  people 
are  the  ones  who  believe  in  individual  liberty,  who 
have  confidence  that  a  man  can  work  out  his  own  for- 
tune and  build  his  own  character  better  than  any  one 
else  can  work  it  out  or  build  it  for  him.  Those  who 


164         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

distrust  the  people  are  the  ones  who  wish  to  regulate 
their  every  act,  to  limit  their  gains  and  their  accom- 
plishments, and  to  force  by  the  strong  arm  of  govern- 
ment an  artificial  and  superficial  equality  as  a  substi- 
tute for  that  equal  opportunity  which  is  liberty.  There 
could  be  no  greater  evidence  of  hopelessly  confused 
thinking  than  to  suppose  that  a  government  of  limited 
powers  is  so  limited  because  the  people  distrust  them- 
selves. The  fact  is  precisely  the  opposite.  To  trust 
the  people  is  to  leave  them  in  fullest  possible  possession 
of  their  liberty  and  to  call  upon  them  to  use  that  liberty 
and  its  fruits  for  the  public  good. 

The  second  fundamental  and  far-reaching  principle 
that  is  under  attack  in  the  mistaken  name  of  progress 
is  that  which  governs  the  relation  of  the  individual  to 
the  community  or  state.  This  principle  is  closely 
bound  up  with  a  written  constitution  and  its  limita- 
tions on  the  power  of  government,  and  the  two  really 
stand  or  fall  together. 

There  are  three  broadly  distinguished  ways  in  which 
the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  community  may 
be  viewed.  We  may,  in  the  first  place,  look  upon  the 
individual  as  everything  and  the  community  as  noth- 
ing. In  that  case  each  individual  becomes  an  end 
unto  himself,  and  what  we  call  civilization  is  reduced 
to  a  predatory  war  in  which  the  remainder  of  mankind 
are  the  enemies  of  each  individual.  More  than  once 
in  the  history  of  human  thinking  doctrinaires  have  ex- 
pounded this  view  and  have  exalted  it  as  desirable. 
They  have  not,  fortunately,  been  able  to  secure  enough 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         165 

support  to  put  their  doctrine  into  practice  over  a  wide 
area  or  for  any  considerable  time. 

We  may,  in  the  second  place,  look  upon  the  individ- 
ual as  nothing  and  the  community  as  everything.  In 
one  form  or  another  this  is  the  doctrine  which  underlies 
the  civilization  of  the  Orient.  In  the  East,  either  by 
ancestor  worship,  by  caste  feeling,  or  by  religious  doc- 
trine, whole  masses  of  population  have  been  held  in 
subjection  for  centuries;  for  the  controlling  principle 
of  life  forbade  an  individual  to  assert  his  independence 
of  the  thought  of  the  community  of  which  he  was  a 
part. 

If  anarchy  be  the  result  of  the  first  of  these  views, 
stagnation  is  the  result  of  the  second.  The  Western 
peoples  from  the  time  of  the  Greeks  have  endeavored 
to  avoid  both  anarchy  and  stagnation  by  adopting  and 
acting  upon  a  third  point  of  view.  This  point  of  view, 
in  contradistinction  to  individualism  on  the  one  hand 
and  to  communism  on  the  other,  I  call  institutionalism, 
for  the  reason  that  it  looks  upon  the  individual  as 
finding  his  highest  purpose  not  in  antagonizing  his 
interests  to  those  of  his  fellows,  but  in  using  his  free- 
dom and  his  power  of  initiative  to  help  them  build 
and  maintain  the  institutions  that  are  civilization. 
This  is  a  view  that  lays  great  stress  upon  individuality, 
upon  personal  liberty,  and  upon  personal  character, 
but  that  sees  liberty  and  character  perfected  and  mani- 
fested in  the  free  and  willing  service  of  the  community 
and  in  those  civil  institutions  which  exemplify  this 
service  and  aid  it.  This  view  differs  sharply  from  that 


166         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

first  described  in  that,  while  it  emphasizes  the  individ- 
ual, it  yet  regards  him  as  a  member  of  a  group,  a  com- 
munity, a  society,  in  which  he  has  duties  and  owes 
service  as  well  as  possesses  rights  and  privileges.  It 
differs  from  the  second  view  in  that  it  calls  upon  the 
individual  to  serve  his  fellow  men  willingly  and  out  of 
conscience  and  good  judgment,  instead  of  reducing  him 
by  an  external  force  to  a  uniform  level  of  action  and 
of  belief. 

There  is  no  progress  in  politics  in  breaking  down  this 
third  view  of  the  relation  between  the  individual  and 
the  community  in  favor  of  either  the  first  or  the  second. 
The  road  that  leads  to  that  individualism  which  is 
anarchy  is  not  one  of  progress.  The  road  that  leads 
to  that  communism  which  is  stagnation  is  not  one  of 
progress.  We  have  been  walking  in  the  path  of  prog- 
ress for  two  thousand  five  hundred  years,  and  the  char- 
acteristic of  that  path  is  that  it  leads  every  individual 
to  exert  himself  to  the  utmost,  not  alone  that  he  may 
profit,  but  that  he  may  be  the  better  able  to  serve. 
The  American  people  will  not  be  wise  if  they  fail  to 
test  every  proposal  made  in  the  name  of  progress  by 
this  standard.  Does  it  tend  to  exalt  the  individual 
at  the  expense  of  the  community  in  a  way  that  makes 
for  privilege,  monopoly,  anarchy  ?  If  so,  reject  it. 
Does  it  tend  to  exalt  the  community  at  the  expense  of 
the  individual  in  the  way  that  makes  for  artificial 
equality,  denial  of  initiative,  stagnation  ?  If  so,  reject 
it.  Does  it  tend  to  call  out  the  individual  constantly 
to  improve  himself  for  wider  and  more  effective  service 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         167 

and  good  citizenship  ?  If  so,  adopt  it.  It  makes  for 
progress. 

If  this  analysis  of  underlying  principles  is  correct — 
and  I  submit  it  with  confidence  to  the  judgment  of 
thoughtful  and  unprejudiced  Americans  of  whatever 
party — then  we  must  hold  fast  in  any  programme  of 
advance  to  a  written  constitution,  with  definite  and 
precise  limitations  on  government  in  the  interest  of 
liberty,  which  constitution  is  not  to  be  overridden  and 
ignored,  but  which  may  be  amended  in  orderly  fashion 
when  public  opinion  demands;  and  also  to  a  political 
policy  which  both  in  general  and  in  detail  will  offer 
new  and  increasing  opportunities  to  the  individual, 
not  primarily  for  his  own  aggrandizement,  but  for  the 
public  and  general  good. 

Before  passing  from  these  questions  of  fundamental 
principle  to  some  matters  of  detail,  let  me  say  a  word 
as  to  the  influence  of  the  two-party  system  in  effecting 
political  progress.  The  parliamentary  history  of  Great 
Britain  and  of  the  United  States  demonstrates  that 
free  government  will  progress  most  rapidly  and  most 
equitably  if  it  is  conducted  under  a  system  in  which 
two  political  parties,  differing  sharply  on  some  funda- 
mental principle  of  government,  stand  over  against 
each  other  as  opponents  and  as  critics.  The  construc- 
tive power  of  the  nation  will  at  times  be  represented 
more  strongly  in  the  one  party,  and  at  times  more 
strongly  in  the  other.  But  their  honest,  sincere,  and 
straightforward  criticism  of  each  other's  principles  and 
policies,  and  their  division  of  the  community  into  two 


1 68         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

parties,  each  of  which  includes  representatives  of  every 
class  and  type  of  citizenship,  has  in  it  far  more  of  hope, 
far  more  promise  of  advance,  and  far  more  of  democ- 
racy than  has  a  series  of  temporary  legislative  majori- 
ties made  up  by  a  combination  of  rival  groups,  each 
representing  a  class  interest  and  struggling  not  for 
principle,  but  for  advantage.  There  is  no  progress  to 
be  had  by  the  multiplication  of  parties  or  by  introduc- 
ing here  the  system  of  political  groups,  which  has  made 
so  difficult  the  advance  of  parliamentary  institutions 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  which  has  at  times 
so  paralyzed  the  arm  of  effective  government.  The 
Labor  party  in  Great  Britain  has  greatly  complicated 
the  problems  of  government  without  materially  ad- 
vancing the  cause  of  its  own  members,  for  the  reason 
that  it  represents  not  a  principle,  but  an  interest  in 
politics.  The  triumph  of  a  combination  of  interests  is 
more  to  be  feared  and  deplored  than  the  victory  of  an 
unsound  principle.  The  latter  can  often  be  undone; 
the  former  rarely,  and  only  after  long  tribulation.  We 
should  strive  to  strengthen,  rather  than  to  weaken, 
the  party  system  which  divides  society  by  a  perpen- 
dicular line  running  through  all  classes  alike,  and  we 
should  resist  the  substitution  for  it  of  a  number  of 
special  groups  and  class  interests  that  divide  society 
horizontally. 

What,  now,  are  some  of  the  real  problems  that  are 
pressing  for  solution  and  whose  satisfactory  handling, 
without  departing  from  sound  principle,  would  con- 
stitute genuine  progress  in  our  politics  ?  They  are 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         169 

very  many,  and  it  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  men- 
tion the  most  important  of  them. 

i.  It  is  plain  that  a  large  number  of  persons  are  dis- 
satisfied with  what  may  be  called  the  stiffness  of  the 
framework  of  our  government.  They  have  been  in- 
duced to  believe  that  representative  institutions  are 
not  adequate  to  a  just  expression  of  the  popular  will, 
and  that  it  is  desirable  to  modify  them  or  to  overturn 
them  entirely  by  going  back  to  the  once  abandoned 
methods  of  direct  democracy.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
prove  that  the  substitution  of  direct  democracy  for 
representative  institutions  is  and  must  necessarily  be 
a  long  step  backward.  On  the  other  hand,  it  will  be 
a  step  in  advance  to  seek  out  and  to  remove  the  causes 
of  dissatisfaction  with  representative  government  and 
the  distrust  of  it  that  now  exist.  There  are  two  ways 
of  accomplishing  this:  One  is  to  make  the  framework 
of  government  somewhat  more  flexible  than  now,  and 
the  other  to  simplify  and  to  improve  the  methods  by 
which  public  officers  are  chosen  as  well  as  those  by 
which  governmental  policies  are  declared  and  executed. 

To  provide  a  less  difficult  mode  of  amending  the 
Constitution  than  that  now  in  force  would  be  to  make 
progress.  A  quarter  century  ago  it  was  pointed  out1 
that  artificially  excessive  majorities  are  required  to 
bring  about  constitutional  change.  At  that  time  fewer 
than  3,000,000  people  could  successfully  resist  more 
than  45,000,000  in  the  attempt  to  secure  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution.  A  safeguard  of  this  kind 

'Burgess:    Political  Science  and  Comparative  Constitutional  Law,  I,  151. 


iyo         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

is  extreme,  and  of  itself  invites  to  revolution  and  vio- 
lence. So  far  as  the  State  constitutions  are  concerned, 
the  process  of  amendment  is  already  quite  easy  enough, 
and  if  the  bad  habit  of  putting  into  the  organic  law 
what  are  really  legislative  details  could  be  checked,  the 
wish  to  amend  the  State  constitutions  would  be  far  less 
frequent  than  at  present.  With  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  however,  the  case  is  different.  The 
modification  of  the  amending  article  has  been  discussed 
at  various  times  since  it  was  first  proposed  by  Senator 
Henderson,  of  Missouri,  in  connection  with  the  pro- 
jected Thirteenth  Amendment,  in  1864.  Professor 
Burgess,  of  Columbia  University,  made  an  important 
suggestion  on  this  subject1  more  than  twenty  years 
ago,  and  more  recently  his  suggestion  has  been  modi- 
fied and  presented 2  in  a  way  that  deserves  careful  con- 
sideration as  a  part  of  any  programme  of  political 
advance. 

The  suggestion  is  that  in  future  amendments  to  the 
Constitution  shall  be  submitted  to  the  States  for  rati- 
fication when  passed  by  a  majority  vote  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress  in  two  successive  Congresses.  When  so 
submitted  they  shall  be  voted  upon  either  by  the  legis- 
latures of  the  several  States  or  by  conventions  in  each 
State,  or  directly  by  the  voters  in  each  of  the  States, 
as  one  or  another  of  these  methods  of  ratification  may 
be  proposed  by  Congress.  When  so  voted  upon  they 
shall  be  ratified  whenever  accepted  by  a  majority  of 

1  Burgess:  Political  Science  and  Comparative  Constitutional  Law,  I,  152-3. 

2  Munroe  Smith:  "Shall  We  Make  Our  Constitution  Flexible?"  in  North 
American  Review,  November,  1911,  pp.  657-673. 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         171 

the  States — whether  acting  through  their  legislatures 
or  by  conventions,  or  by  direct  vote  of  the  people,  as 
may  have  been  provided — on  condition  that  the  ratify- 
ing States  also  contain  a  majority  of  the  population  of 
all  the  States  according  to  the  last  preceding  enumera- 
tion. The  advantages  of  this  plan  for  amending  the 
Constitution  over  that  at  present  in  force  would  be 
that  a  minority  of  one-third  in  either  House  of  Congress 
could  not  withhold  indefinitely,  as  now,  the  submission 
of  a  new  constitutional  proposal  to  the  States,  and  that 
population  would  be  given  a  due  and  proper  weight  in 
deciding  whether  or  not  a  particular  proposal  should 
be  ratified.  On  the  other  hand,  deliberation  and  cau- 
tion would  be  secured  by  the  provision  that  a  proposal 
to  amend  the  Constitution  must  command  a  majority 
of  both  Houses  in  each  of  two  successive  Congresses. 
This  suggestion,  which  is  the  result  of  much  careful 
study,  will,  I  think,  commend  itself  the  more  closely  it 
is  examined  as  a  genuine  step  in  advance  through  mak- 
ing the  framework  of  the  government  more  flexible  and 
more  responsive  to  popular  opinion,  without  breaking 
down  any  existing  safeguard  and  without  violating 
any  fundamental  principle. 

2.  The  people  as  a  whole  are  not  satisfied  with  the 
present  methods  of  nominating  and  electing  public 
officers.  The  wide-spread  movement  to  dispense  with 
conventions  and  other  intermediate  bodies  and  to  nom- 
inate all  candidates  for  office  by  the  direct  primary  is 
evidence  of  popular  discontent  with  the  methods  that 
nave  heretofore  existed.  It  is  my  belief,  however,  that 


172         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

the  rapid  development  of  legislation  controlling  politi- 
cal party  organization  and  procedure  is  not  a  step  for- 
ward, but,  rather,  backward — or  perhaps  sideways; 
and  that  real  progress  lies  in  a  different  direction.  I 
cannot  agree  with  those  who  are  urging  the  State  in 
the  name  of  progress  to  extend  statutory  control  over 
party  organizations  and  methods.  It  would,  I  believe, 
be  wiser  for  the  State  to  withdraw  entirely  from  all 
legislation  affecting  political  parties  and  their  methods 
other  than  that  which  also  affects  churches,  Masonic 
lodges,  chambers  of  commerce,  and  other  voluntary 
bodies.  The  attention  of  the  State  government  should 
be  fixed  on  the  election,  and  on  the  election  alone.  Of 
course,  in  that  case  there  should  be  no  discrimination 
in  favor  of  political  parties  in  making  up  the  official 
ballot.  Access  to  the  ballot  should  be  open  on  the 
same  terms  to  any  responsible  body  of  citizens  suffi- 
ciently numerous  to  command  attention  and  willing  to 
give  some  evidence  of  good  faith.  The  way  would 
then  be  open  for  an  appeal  to  the  people,  on  equal 
terms,  by  parties  other  than  the  two  leading  ones,  and 
by  those  voters  who,  not  associated  with  any  political 
party,  so  often  hold  the  balance  of  power  between  par- 
ties and  exercise  a  healthy  influence  upon  them.  A 
political  party,  like  a  Masonic  lodge  or  a  branch  of  the 
Christian  church  or  a  chamber  of  commerce,  should 
be  left  to  its  own  devices  and  allowed  to  regulate  itself 
and  to  manage  its  own  internal  affairs  as  it  wills.  If 
the  contrary  view,  which  is  at  present  so  popular,  be 
taken,  then  it  may  be  safely  predicted  that  before 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         173 

many  years  we  shall  find  ourselves  confronting  prob- 
lems arising  out  of  this  legal  relation  between  the  State 
and  the  political  parties  that  will  rival  in  complexity 
and  difficulty  those  that  have  already  arisen  in  Euro- 
pean countries  between  the  State  and  the  legally  rec- 
ognized churches.  The  result  will  be  not  progress, 
but  reaction. 

This  is  a  large  and  difficult  subject,  full  of  points  of 
contention.  I  must  be  satisfied  for  the  moment  with 
merely  indicating  that  the  course  of  action  which  has 
hitherto  been  hailed  as  a  mark  of  progress  seems  to 
me  to  be  something  quite  different. 

If  the  spirit  animating  a  political  party  is  one  of 
justice  and  wisdom,  it  will  permit  its  members  to  give 
expression  to  their  wishes  and  preferences  in  any  way 
that  a  majority  of  them  desire.  The  method  of  the 
direct  primary  is  doubtless  advantageous  within  rela- 
tively small  and  homogeneous  communities,  where 
men  know  each  other  and  where  candidates  for  office 
can  be  discussed  with  some  degree  of  understanding 
and  personal  acquaintance.  That  it  will  be  highly  dis- 
advantageous to  substitute  the  direct  primary  for  the 
method  of  the  convention  and  conference  when  large 
areas  are  involved,  such  as  a  great  State  or  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  I  am  entirely  certain.  It  will,  among  other 
things,  exalt  the  professional  politician  and  the  man 
who  can  provide  or  secure  the  great  sums  of  money 
needed  to  carry  on  a  campaign  for  several  weeks  or 
months  before  a  large  and  widely  distributed  body  of 
electors.  True  progress  will  consist  in  freeing  the  con- 


174         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

vention  system  from  abuses,  not  in  abolishing  it.  To 
supplement  the  State  and  national  conventions  by  a 
direct  expression  of  the  preference  of  the  individual 
voter  is  one  thing;  to  do  away  with  such  conventions 
and  their  great  advantages  is  quite  another. 

3.  Again,  the  government  will  be  more  quickly  re- 
sponsive to  the  will  of  the  people  if  the  necessary  steps 
be  taken  to  improve  our  legislative  methods  and  proce- 
dure. Many  if  not  most  of  our  laws  are  loosely  drawn 
and  carelessly  considered,  and  in  a  great  number  of 
cases  they  fail  absolutely  to  accomplish  the  object 
desired  by  those  who  urge  them.  These  facts  of  them- 
selves lead  to  much  unnecessary  and  vexatious  litiga- 
tion, and  tend  to  give  ground  for  the  belief  that  in 
some  way  or  other  the  processes  of  government  are 
used  not  to  carry  out,  but  to  defeat,  the  popular  will. 

We  might  with  advantage  imitate  the  procedure  of 
the  House  of  Commons  in  this  respect,  as  it  is  far 
superior  to  our  own.  The  fault  in  this  country  does 
not  lie  in  our  system  of  government,  nor  does  it  lie 
with  members  of  the  legislatures  as  individuals.  It  is 
to  be  found  rather  in  the  fact  that  we  have  utterly 
neglected  to  perfect  our  methods  of  legislation.  We 
give  little  or  no  attention  to  the  art  of  bill  drafting, 
and  hardly  any  checks  have  been  provided  against  the 
indiscriminate  introduction  of  bills  in  legislative  bodies. 
When  bills  are  introduced  without  previous  careful  re- 
vision, and  are  submitted  by  the  thousand  in  a  single 
session,  it  is  plain  that  it  is  out  of  the  question  to 
secure  satisfactory  results  for  the  public. 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         175 

We  need,  both  in  connection  with  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  and  in  connection  with  the  several 
State  legislatures,  commissions  of  experts  to  draft  bills 
in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  those  who  have  a 
particular  proposal  to  bring  forward.  It  ought  not  to 
be  possible  for  an  individual  member  of  a  legislature 
to  present  bills  at  random  and  haphazard  at  the  re- 
quest of  this  constituent  or  that,  badly  phrased,  crudely 
and  verbosely  drawn,  and  utterly  unsuited  in  form 
and  in  content  to  find  a  place  upon  the  statute-book. 

4.  We  have  now  had  a  long  experience  with  the 
sharp  separation  of  the  executive  and  the  legislative 
powers,  and  that  this  separation  has  some  disadvan- 
tages is  certain.  Our  governmental  policies  too  often 
lack  continuity  and  coherence  because  of  it.  In  many 
ways  the  effectiveness  and  economy  of  the  national 
government  suffer  severely  owing  to  the  fact  that  so 
often  the  executive  and  the  legislature  act  at  cross 
purposes,  or  on  insufficient  and  inaccurate  informa- 
tion, or  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  motives  of 
each  other.  This  difficulty  could  be  in  large  measure 
removed  if  action  were  taken,  as  might  easily  and  con- 
stitutionally be  done,  giving  to  the  members  of  the 
President's  Cabinet  seats  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives,  with  the  right  to  par- 
ticipate in  debate  upon  matters  relating  to  their  sev- 
eral departments,  and  with  the  obligation  to  answer 
questions  and  to  give  information  in  response  to  re- 
quests from  senators  and  representatives.  This  is 
not  a  new  proposal.  It  is  associated  chiefly  with  the 


176         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

name  of  George  H.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  who  brought 
it  forward  as  long  ago  as  1864,  when  he  was  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was  vigorously 
supported  at  that  time  by  Mr.  Garfield  and  by  Mr. 
Elaine.  Fifteen  years  later,  when  Mr.  Pendleton  was 
United  States  Senator  from  Ohio,  he  returned  to  the 
subject  and  introduced  a  bill  dealing  with  the  matter, 
which  was  referred  to  a  select  committee  and  soon  re- 
ported favorably  over  the  signature  of  Senator  Pendle- 
tion  himself,  together  with  those  of  Senators  Allison 
of  Iowa,  Voorhees  of  Indiana,  Elaine  of  Maine,  Butler 
of  South  Carolina,  Ingalls  of  Kansas,  Platt  of  Con^ 
necticut,  and  Farley  of  California.  Even  these  im- 
portant leaders,  however,  could  not  accomplish  this 
desirable  reform,  although  they  were  united  in  its 
support.  The  proposal  was  renewed  again  by  John 
D.  Long,  of  Massachusetts,  when  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  1886.  It  has  recently 
received  the  indorsement  of  President  Taft. 

That  this  action  would,  if  taken,  greatly  increase  the 
efficiency  of  our  government  and  bring  the  executive 
and  the  legislative  branches  into  closer  understanding 
of  each  other's  methods  and  purposes,  without  in  the 
least  trenching  upon  the  independence  and  authority 
of  either,  seems  to  me  quite  certain.  One  of  the  most 
valuable  features  in  the  business  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons is  the  asking  by  members  of  the  House  of  specific 
questions  on  matters  concerning  which  the  public 
wishes  information,  or  about  which  some  criticism  or 
discussion  has  arisen.  Many  a  long  and  useless  speech 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         177 

that  now  extends  over  pages  of  the  Congressional  Rec- 
ord would  be  saved  if  a  responsible  Cabinet  officer 
were  at  hand  to  give  immediate  answer  to  a  definite 
question,  or  to  offer  a  statement  of  fact. 

5.  There  is  no  reason,  save  the  sheer  force  of  custom, 
for  adhering  longer  to  the  present  plan  of  electing  a 
new  Congress  in  November  and  providing  for  its  first 
regular  session  to  begin  thirteen  months   afterward. 
The  Congress  would  be  more  closely  in  touch  with 
popular  sentiment  and  more  responsive  to  it,  as  well 
as  in  better  mood  for  constructive  legislation,  if  it 
were  statedly  convened  within  sixty  or  ninety  days 
of  the  time  when  its  members  are  chosen.     As  matters 
are  at  present,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives is  already  concerned  with  the  preliminaries  of  a 
campaign  for  re-election  before  he  has  really  entered 
upon  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office. 

6.  In  the  nation  we  have  the  principle  of  the  short 
ballot.     It  will  be  a  step  in  advance  when  we  extend 
this  principle  to  all  the  States.     The  State  of  New 
Jersey  has  enjoyed  it  for  many  years,  and  in  conse- 
quence has  one  of  the  best  governments  of  any  State 
in  the  Union.     Where  the  short  ballot  is  adopted,  pub- 
lic interest  and  attention  are  centred  upon  the  most 
important  executive  and  legislative  officers,  and  they 
are  chosen  and  held  responsible  for  the  selection  of 
their  associates  in  the  minor  offices  of  government.     A 
large  part  of  the  extravagance  and  maladministration 
in  county  government  throughout  the  United  States 
is  due  to  the  election  by  the  people  of  a  long  list  of 


178         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

minor  officials  who  have  no  common  sense  of  responsi- 
bility and  no  common  purpose.  We  need  the  short 
ballot  in  the  State  and  in  the  county  as  we  already 
have  it  in  the  nation,  and  are  rapidly  getting  it  in  the 
municipalities. 

Here,  then,  are  six  important  steps  forward  waiting 
to  be  taken:  A  more  flexible  method  of  amending  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States;  a  more  satisfactory 
way  of  nominating  and  electing  public  officers;  im- 
provement in  legislative  methods  and  procedure;  giv- 
ing to  members  of  the  President's  Cabinet  seats  on  the 
floor  of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  with  the  right  to  par- 
ticipate in  debates  concerning  their  several  depart- 
ments; beginning  the  regular  session  of  Congress  at  a 
point  much  nearer  to  the  election  of  its  members  than 
now,  and  the  extension  of  the  principle  of  the  short 
ballot. 

Some  of  these  reforms  relate  to  the  national  govern- 
ment alone,  while  others  affect  both  the  government 
of  the  nation  and  that  of  the  States.  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  adoption  of 
all  six  proposals  would  be  greatly  to  improve  the  work 
of  our  governmental  system  as  a  whole,  and  to  allay  a 
large  part  of  the  dissatisfaction  with  it  that  now  exists. 

Given  these  improvements,  then  concrete  problems 
of  legislation  and  administration  may  be  attacked  with 
greater  hope  of  success  and  satisfaction.  We  should 
not  delay  even  a  month  in  trying  to  secure  a  modern 
and  scientific  system  of  banking  and  currency  without 
waiting  for  the  lessons  of  another  money  panic.  We 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         179 

should  labor  to  bring  greater  economy  into  the  field  of 
public  expenditure,  and  to  weigh  carefully  the  effect 
upon  the  cost  of  living  of  governmental  extravagance 
and  the  constant  creation  of  huge  volumes  of  bonded 
indebtedness. 

We  should  support  the  businesslike  recommendation 
of  President  Taft  for  the  formulation  of  an  annual 
national  budget,  that  some  semblance  of  order  may  be 
brought  into  the  present  chaos  of  national  appropria- 
tion and  expenditure.  We  should  follow  the  sugges- 
tions of  the  American  Bar  Association  and  other  im- 
portant authorities,  to  the  end  that  undue  delay  in 
judicial  procedure  may  be  avoided  and  that  numerous 
and  costly  appeals,  particularly  when  based  on  tech- 
nical points,  may  be  reduced  so  far  as  is  consistent 
with  strict  justice.  We  should  consider  with  an  open 
mind  whether  the  effect  is  good  or  ill  of  depending  so 
largely  as  we  do  upon  indirect  taxation,  and  whether 
if  more  direct  taxes  are  to  be  levied,  they  should  not 
be  levied  with  the  lowest  possible  limit  of  exemption, 
in  order  to  bring  the  cost  of  government  home  to  sub- 
stantially the  entire  electorate.  We  should  push  for- 
ward along  the  road  already  travelled  by  the  national 
government  and  by  many  States  toward  the  improve- 
ment of  social  conditions  and  the  betterment  of  those 
who  are  forced  to  live  on  the  very  margin  of  want. 
We  should  plan  vigorously  and  wisely  for  the  preven- 
tion, and  not  alone  for  the  cure,  of  the  many  difficul- 
ties and  injustices  now  existing  in  society,  and  do  so 
in  a  spirit  that  will  not  lead  the  individual  to  lean  more 


i8o         WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS? 

heavily  upon  the  community,  but,  rather,  help  him  to 
stand  yet  more  surely  and  confidently  upon  his  own 
feet.  We  should  aim  not  to  bring  the  government 
into  partnership  with  monopoly  and  privilege,  but  in 
all  our  legislation  affecting  these  matters,  whether  in 
the  State  or  in  the  nation,  to  keep  open  the  channels 
both  of  competition  and  of  useful  combination  by  pre- 
venting monopoly  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  punishing 
specifically  unfair  and  dishonorable  business  practices 
on  the  other.  We  have,  fortunately,  learned  as  a 
people  the  meaning  of  the  words  "the  conservation  of 
our  natural  resources,"  and  it  is  the  policy  of  progress 
to  go  forward  systematically  and  intelligently  with 
the  course  that  has  already  been  adopted.  We  should 
refrain  always  and  under  whatever  temptation  from  a 
policy  of  international  bravado  and  swagger,  and 
should  yield  nothing,  whether  by  careless  act  or  by 
considered  policy,  of  the  leadership  that  we  have  gained 
in  promoting  the  cause  of  international  peace  and  the 
judicial  settlement  of  disputes  between  the  civilized 
nations. 

All  these  matters  and  a  score  more  suggest  themselves 
to  the  eager  American  mind  bent  on  high  achievement 
and  securing  the  just  working  of  government  for  noble 
ends.  A  government  must  first  of  all  make  certain  its 
own  security  and  stability.  It  must  then  labor  to 
advance  the  national  ideal  and  at  the  same  time  strive 
to  take  an  honorable  part  in  the  life  and  aspirations  of 
the  world  as  a  whole. 

In  such  ways  as  these  lies  the  path  of  true  progress 


WHAT  IS  PROGRESS  IN  POLITICS?         181 

in  politics.  That  path  is  not  to  be  found  amid  the 
morasses  of  discontent,  of  class  feeling,  of  the  grasping 
for  privilege  and  monopoly,  or  by  making  the  individ- 
ual lean  constantly  more  heavily  upon  the  community 
for  maintenance  and  support.  It  is  to  be  found,  rather, 
out  on  the  clear  and  sunlit  heights  of  individual  oppor- 
tunity, where  a  fair  chance  is  given  to  every  man  to 
stand  erect  and  to  do  a  man's  work  in  the  world, 
knowing  that  thereby  he  is  serving  the  state  and  help- 
ing to  build  civilization  on  a  yet  securer  basis. 

For  my  own  part,  I  should  like  to  be  able  to  say  of 
the  political  party  in  whose  tenets  I  believe,  and  to 
which  I  am  glad  to  belong,  what  Robert  Lowe  said  of 
the  Liberal  party  in  Great  Britain  in  the  dark  days  of 
1878,  when  its  prestige  seemed  fatally  broken  and  its 
long-time  power  trampled  under  foot  by  the  trium- 
phant opposition: 

The  ideal  of  the  Liberal  party,  said  Robert  Lowe, 
consists  in  a  view  of  things  undisturbed  and  undis- 
torted  by  the  promptings  of  interest  or  prejudice,  in  a 
complete  independence  of  all  class  interests,  and  in 
relying  for  its  success  on  the  better  feelings  and  higher 
intelligence  of  mankind. 

"Happier  words,"  said  Matthew  Arnold  of  this  pas- 
sage, "could  not  well  be  found." 

Two  years  later  the  Liberal  party,  pursuing  this 
ideal,  was  returned  to  power  under  the  leadership  of 
William  E.  Gladstone. 


XI 
ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 


Nominating  speech  before  the  Republican  National 
Convention,  Chicago,  Illinois,  June  9,  1916 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

To  be  elected  twenty-ninth  President  of  the  United 
States,  I  shall  nominate  him  who,  by  common  con- 
sent, stands  with  the  foremost  statesmen  of  his  time 
in  this  or  any  other  land. 

This  is  no  ordinary  convention.  These  are  no  or- 
dinary times.  The  world  is  in  upheaval.  Forces 
thought  to  be  long  since  cribbed,  cabined  and  con- 
fined are  loose  in  the  world,  spreading  havoc  and  de- 
struction on  every  side.  There  is  everywhere  uncer- 
tainty, unrest,  grave  concern  for  the  happenings  of 
to-morrow.  The  American  people  find  themselves  in 
the  midst  of  a  great  world  storm.  Round  about  them 
the  tempest  is  raging,  and  the  great  heaving  waves 
of  passion,  of  prejudice  and  of  hate  are  threatening 
the  total  destruction  of  the  craft  which  bears  those 
fruits  of  human  accomplishment  that  we  call  civiliza- 
tion. There  is  need  of  vision;  there  is  need  of  leader- 
ship; there  is  need  of  sound,  well-tested  principle  and 
policy,  if  all  that  we  hold  most  dear  is  to  ride  this 
storm  in  safety. 

Problems  abroad  multiply  problems  at  home.  Prob- 
lems at  home  intensify  problems  abroad.  Where  can 
this  nation  turn  for  guidance  and  for  accomplishment 
at  a  crisis  like  this  if  not  to  the  party  which  has  given 

185 


1 86  ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

to  American  life  one  after  another  of  the  great  group 
of  leaders  and  constructive  statesmen  who  have  made 
so  large  a  part  of  American  history  for  the  past  sixty 
years  ?  That  party  is  possessed  of  a  body  of  funda- 
mental principles  which  rest  upon  the  foundation  of 
American  character,  American  history  and  American 
hope.  That  party  does  not  draw  back  from  difficulty, 
because  it  has  grown  great  by  surmounting  one  severe 
difficulty  after  another.  That  party  does  not  draw 
back  from  problems,  because  it  has  made  its  repute 
in  the  history  of  free  government  by  successfully 
solving  one  hard  problem  after  another.  That  party 
is  confident  of  finding  leaders  with  vision,  with  sagacity 
and  with  power,  because  for  two  generations  of  men 
it  has  furnished  one  such  after  another  to  the  causes 
which  it  has  made  its  own.  The  best  guide  for  the 
future  is  the  knowledge  and  the  experience  of  the  past. 

Just  now  every  difficulty,  every  problem  merges 
into  one.  That  is  the  difficulty,  that  is  the  problem, 
of  finding  the  voice  and  of  executing  the  will  of  real 
America. 

Our  America  is  the  land  where  hate  expires.  It  is 
the  land  where  differences  of  race,  of  creed,  of  lan- 
guage, all  melt  away  before  the  powerful  and  weld- 
ing heat  of  devotion  to  civil  liberty.  We  are  com- 
posite as  a  people,  but  we  are  one  in  fundamental  be- 
lief, one  in  controlling  principle,  one  in  confident  hope 
for  the  future.  It  was  the  task  of  the  Republican 
party,  with  the  splendid  aid  of  men  of  other  political 
faith,  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  nation  in  the 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN  187 

6o's,  and  to  keep  its  financial  and  commercial  honor 
unsullied  in  the  go's.  Shall  it  not  be  the  goal  of  the 
Republican  party,  as  the  twentieth  century  unfolds 
itself  to  be  a  stage  for  the  thoughts  and  the  deeds  of 
men,  to  integrate  and  to  express  the  spirit  and  the 
soul  of  the  American  people  at  home  and  abroad  ? 
May  we  not  call  to  our  side  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  task,  as  our  grandfathers  and  our  fathers  did  for 
theirs,  all  patriotic  Americans,  men  and  women  alike, 
whose  faith  may  at  times  be  different  from  ours  but 
who  see  the  compelling  power  of  the  one  great  prob- 
lem and  the  one  great  need  of  this  moment  ? 

Nineteen  sixteen  is  no  ordinary  year.  The  American 
people  find  themselves  voiceless,  disunited,  broken, 
owing  to  what  we  cannot  but  regard  as  the  incom- 
petence of  the  administration  and  its  inability  either 
to  understand  or  to  confront  the  stupendous  happen- 
ings of  the  past  two  years.  We  are  gathered  here,  in 
the  presence  of  this  great  company  and  under  the 
scrutiny  of  the  whole  American  people,  to  take  the 
first  step  in  substituting  for  the  administration  now 
in  power  a  Republican  administration  that  shall  bring 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  safety,  prosperity, 
happiness,  and  increasing  self-respect.  We  are  here 
to  choose  leaders  who,  in  turn,  are  to  give  voice  and 
effect  to  Republican  principles  and  to  Republican 
policies.  One  State  after  another  will,  in  friendly 
rivalry,  present  the  name  of  him  whom  it  prefers  to 
have  selected  to  become  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States.  For  there  is  every  prospect  that  the 


1 88  ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

nominee  of  this  Convention  will  succeed  to  the  office 
of  President  on  March  4,  1917. 

It  is  my  privilege  to  offer  you  the  name  not  only  of 
a  typical  American,  but  of  an  American  whose  char- 
acter, abilities  and  public  service,  now  in  the  ripe  full- 
ness of  their  power,  have  brought  to  him  fame  and 
distinction  such  as  fall  to  the  lot  of  but  few  men  in  a 
century.  Born  among  the  hills  of  central  New  York, 
on  the  campus  of  an  American  college  which  appro- 
priately enough  bears  the  great  name  of  Hamilton,  he 
made  his  way  with  credit  and  every  evidence  of  promise 
through  college  and  law  school  to  the  bar.  Admitted 
to  the  bar  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  his  industry,  his 
native  ability,  and  his  power  of  clear  and  persuasive 
speech  quickly  brought  him  both  clients  and  reputa- 
tion. Young  as  he  was,  President  Arthur  found  in 
him  a  trusted  adviser  and  a  close  friend.  He  first 
held  public  office  as  United  States  District  Attorney, 
by  President  Arthur's  appointment.  So  wide-spread 
was  his  reputation  and  so  high  his  character  that  in 
1899,  when  the  problems  left  by  the  Spanish  War 
were  pressing  heavily  upon  the  administration  and  the 
people,  President  McKinley  turned  to  him  for  counsel 
and  for  great  public  responsibility  and  service.  When 
the  message  of  invitation  reached  him  to  become 
Secretary  of  War,  he  replied:  "I  know  nothing  about 
the  army.  Thank  the  President  for  me,  but  say  it  is 
quite  absurd.  I  know  nothing  about  war."  Shortly 
the  answer  came  back:  "President  McKinley  directs 
me  to  say  he  is  not  looking  for  any  one  who  knows 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN  189 

about  war  or  about  the  army.  He  is  looking  for  a 
statesman  to  organize  and  to  direct  the  government 
of  the  new  possessions  that  the  war  has  brought  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  You  are  the  man  he 
wants."  Such  an  invitation  was  a  command.  The 
high-minded  and  conscientious  lawyer  laid  aside  the 
ordinary  practice  of  his  profession  to  answer  the  call 
of  the  greatest  of  all  clients,  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  For  sixteen  years  they  have  been  his  only 
clients,  and  how  faithfully  and  with  what  distinction 
he  has  served  them,  are  now  matters  of  history. 

He  reorganized  the  army  of  the  United  States  and 
brought  it  to  the  highest  point  of  efficiency  it  has  ever 
reached.  The  General  Staff  and  the  War  College  are 
the  fruits  of  his  policies.  In  Cuba,  in  Porto  Rico,  in 
the  Philippine  Islands,  at  Panama,  his  administrative 
skill  and  his  vision  have  made  his  name  one  to  be 
conjured  with.  The  policies  that  were  then  formulated 
and  executed  brought  happiness  and  contentment  to 
those  distant  people  and  new  honor  and  credit  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  He  was  in  large 
measure  the  founder  of  our  American  colonial  policy, 
and  no  more  enlightened,  more  humane,  or  more  suc- 
cessful colonial  policy  has  yet  been  seen  in  the  world. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  among  the  problems  that 
press  in  the  immediate  future  are  problems  relating  to 
the  army.  He  of  whom  I  speak  was  perhaps  our 
greatest  Secretary  of  War. 

On  the  death  of  John  Hay,  he  was  recalled  to  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Roosevelt  as  Secretary  of  State. 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

Four  brilliant  years  of  constructive  statesmanship  and 
of  rapidly  growing  international  influence  were  the 
result.  Never  was  our  foreign  policy  more  definite, 
never  was  it  more  precisely  stated,  and  never  was  it 
more  kindly  and  more  firmly  executed.  In  the  South 
American  Republics  his  name  is  acclaimed  as  has  been 
that  of  no  other  American  since  the  silvery  voice  of 
Henry  Clay  was  stilled.  In  China,  because  of  the  re- 
mission of  the  Boxer  indemnity,  he  is  hailed  as  the 
most  generous  and  most  enlightened  of  statesmen, 
and  our  country  is  held  to  be  the  most  beneficent  and 
large-minded  of  nations.  In  Japan,  because  of  the 
joint  agreement  which  bears  his  name,  he  is  trusted 
as  having  been  able  to  propose  a  working  solution  of  a 
difficult  and  delicate  question  of  international  policy. 
He  found  many  and  serious  outstanding  matters  of 
difference  with  our  neighbors  to  the  north,  and  he  left 
them  all  settled  or  in  process  of  settlement.  In  every 
chancellery  of  Europe  his  name  is  known  and  honored. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  chief  problems  that  now 
confront  this  nation  are  those  relating  to  international 
policy  and  international  influence.  He  of  whom  I 
speak  has  unrivalled  knowledge  of  international  law 
and  practice,  and  his  name  is  written  on  the  roll  of 
Secretaries  of  State  with  the  highest. 

From  the  great  post  of  Secretary  of  State  he  passed 
for  six  years  to  the  United  States  Senate.  Here  again 
his  rare  knowledge,  his  familiarity  with  American 
political  and  diplomatic  history,  his  firm  grasp  of  con- 
stitutional and  legal  principle,  and  his  unrivalled 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN  191 

power  of  exposition,  gave  him  from  the  moment  of  his 
entrance  a  place  in  the  first  rank.  Political  friends 
and  political  foes  alike  deferred  to  his  judgment  and 
respected  his  opinion.  As  a  direct  result  of  a  single 
speech,  dangerous  provisions  making  financial  infla- 
tion possible  were  stricken  from  the  Federal  Reserve 
Act.  He  retired  from  this  post  of  service  of  his  own 
free  will  in  order  that  he  might  now  seek  years  of  well- 
earned  rest  and  repose. 

But  the  people  are  not  willing  that  this  notable 
ability,  this  exceptional  experience,  and  this  quite  un- 
equalled reputation  shall  be  beyond  their  reach  at  a 
time  like  this.  The  American  people  are  searching 
for  the  best  they  have.  They  are  everywhere  asking 
whether  it  is  possible  that  when  England  and  France 
and  Germany  and  Russia,  and  every  other  nation  on 
the  globe,  are  seeking  their  most  experienced  and 
ablest  men  to  take  posts  of  highest  service,  the  Ameri- 
can democracy  is  to  be  content  with  anything  less 
than  the  very  best  it  has.  This  is  no  time  to  pay 
compliments.  The  stern  duty  of  to-day  is  to  place 
in  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  that  Republican 
who  by  native  ability,  by  long  public  service,  by  large 
and  full  contribution  to  public  policy,  and  by  force  of 
conviction  and  power  of  expression,  is  best  fitted 
among  us  to  wield  the  executive  power  and  to  guide 
the  destinies  of  this  nation  for  the  four  anxious  years 
upon  which  we  are  about  to  enter. 

There  are  critics  of  democracy  who  tell  us  that 
nothing  is  so  unpopular  as  excellence,  that  the  best 


i92  ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

is  too  good  for  recognition  under  popular  government. 
Who  are  those  who  so  slander  democracy,  who  are 
those  who  so  reflect  upon  popular  appreciation  and 
popular  judgment,  who  are  those  who  so  underestimate 
the  intelligence  and  the  virtue  of  the  American  people  ? 
Is  it  possible  that  democracy  has  made  no  progress 
since  Athens  of  old  ?  Are  we  still  in  that  stage  of 
civilization  where  we  ostracize  Aristides  because  we 
are  weary  of  hearing  him  called  the  Just  ?  Shall  we, 
in  this  twentieth  century,  only  recognize  excellence  in 
order  to  proscribe  it  ?  I  do  not  think  so  meanly  of 
democracy  or  of  the  American  people.  They  wish 
leadership;  they  wish  guidance;  they  long  for  a  voice 
that  is  powerful  enough  to  express  all  that  their  heart 
feels,  and  a  brain  that  is  clear  enough  to  state  in  terms 
of  public  policy  those  hopes  and  aspirations  which  are 
democracy's  life. 

It  is  my  good  fortune  to  enjoy  the  friendship  of 
many  of  those  whose  names  are  now  to  be  presented 
for  the  consideration  of  this  convention.  They  are 
men  of  character,  men  of  capacity,  men  of  public 
experience,  men  of  high  patriotism.  It  would  be  a 
pleasure,  were  we  able  to  have  many  Republican 
Presidents,  to  find  a  place  for  them  all.  But  we  are 
compelled  to  make  a  choice.  It  is  our  duty  to  choose 
him  as  our  candidate  who,  in  the  year  1916  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  issues  of  this  moment,  is  in  our  judg- 
ment best  fitted  and  most  competent  effectively  to 
represent  Republican  principles  and  best  able  to  guide 
the  policies  of  the  American  people. 


ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN  193 

Let  us  take  counsel  of  courage,  not  of  fear.  Let  us 
seek  to  lift  this  coming  campaign  above  all  the  smaller 
and  the  more  sordid  phases  of  politics.  Let  us  give 
to  the  nation  a  President  than  whom  no  public  man 
in  the  history  of  this  country  has  possessed  larger 
powers  of  mind,  firmer  or  more  consistent  character, 
greater  capacity  for  public  service,  or  more  finished 
skill  in  exposition  and  persuasion.  Let  us  fortify 
ourselves  at  home  and  re-establish  our  repute  abroad. 

Beyond  to-day's  raging  storm  of  war  I  see  forming 
a  rainbow  of  promise.  The  bright  colors  that  fade 
one  into  another  are  the  colors  of  the  Saxon  and  the 
Celt,  the  Teuton  and  the  Latin,  the  Slav  and  the  Hun. 
Slowly  these  pass  into  the  pure  white  light  of  the  day 
of  peace  and  progress,  of  happiness  and  friendship 
among  men.  This  rainbow  is  the  symbol  of  our  dear 
America.  Each  separate  color  marks  an  element  of 
race  or  creed  that  goes  into  its  making;  but  when  the 
white  light  of  day  absorbs  them  all  into  itself,  they 
exist  no  longer  as  separate  colors  but  only  as  indis- 
tinguishable parts  of  a  single  and  sufficient  brightness. 
So,  under  competent  and  compelling  leadership,  I 
see  a  single,  united  America — strong,  firm,  resolute, 
just — made  out  of  all  the  different  elements  that  have 
sought  these  shores  of  hope  and  promise  as  a  sailor 
seeks  a  safe  and  sheltered  port  for  refuge  when  the 
tempest  roars.  This  America,  the  America  of  Wash- 
ington and  Jefferson,  of  Hamilton  and  Marshall,  of 
Webster  and  Lincoln,  will  be  a  light  to  lighten  the 
whole  world  and  ages  yet  unborn.  This  America  will 


194  ELIHU  ROOT,  STATESMAN 

know  its  mind  and  do  its  will  because  it  shall  have 
found  a  leader  and  a  voice. 

To  be   Republican  candidate  for  President  of  the 
United  States,  I  name  Elihu  Root  of  New  York. 


XII 
PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  AND  AFTER-PEACE 


An  address  delivered  at  the  Lincoln  Day  Banquet  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Republican  County  Committee  of  Passaic 
County,  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  February  II,  1919 


PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE  AND  AFTER-PEACE 

It  is  fitting  that  Republicans  throughout  the  nation 
should  mark  their  loyal  celebration  of  the  anniversary 
of  Lincoln's  birth  by  invoking  his  spirit,  his  statesman- 
ship, and  his  lofty  patriotism,  to  guide  the  Republican 
party  in  its  relation  toward  the  grave  questions,  both 
national  and  international,  that  are  pressing  for  an- 
swer. The  duty  and  the  opportunity  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  are  of  supreme  importance,  and  the  party 
is  called  upon  again,  as  it  was  in  1860  and  in  1896, 
to  bend  all  its  energies  and  to  unite  all  its  abilities  in 
solving  problems  which  involve  the  very  fabric  and 
honor  of  the  government.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  Congressional  elections  of  1918  indicated  with 
clear  emphasis  that  a  large  plurality  of  American  voters 
place  their  confidence  and  their  hope  in  the  policies 
and  in  the  leadership  of  the  Republican  party.  In- 
deed, a  change  of  but  a  few  hundred  votes  in  an  elec- 
torate of  more  than  one  million  in  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia at  the  presidential  election  of  1916  would  have 
put  a  Republican  instead  of  a  Democrat  in  the  White 
House  during  these  momentous  years;  and  a  change 
of  some  eight  hundred  votes  in  not  more  than  nine 
congressional  districts  at  the  same  election,  would  have 
enabled  the  Republicans  to  organize  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  to  elect  the  Speaker. 


198  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

Despite  these  facts,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  in  his  capacity  as  a  party  leader,  was  rash 
enough  in  October  last  to  demand  of  the  American 
people  a  vote  of  confidence  in  his  administration.  He 
drew  a  dismal  picture  of  what  would  happen  to  him 
and  his  influence  if  his  demand  were  refused.  In  reply, 
the  administration  received  a  vote  of  lack  of  con- 
fidence, which,  all  things  considered,  is  more  em- 
phatic than  any  similar  vote  since  the  Republican 
party  lost  control  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
1874,  immediately  after  having  re-elected  General 
Grant  to  the  presidency  by  an  overwhelming  majority 
in  1872. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  when  the 
elections  of  1918  were  held,  the  Democrat  administra- 
tion had  all  the  benefit  of  participation  in  a  successful 
war;  that  it  had  been  disbursing  public  moneys  by 
the  billion,  with  an  extravagant  recklessness  that  was 
without  parallel  in  the  history  of  any  government; 
that  it  controlled,  through  the  railways,  the  telegraphs 
and  telephones,  as  well  as  through  the  supervision  of 
the  banking  and  business  interests  of  the  country, 
an  amount  of  patronage  which  made  the  list  of  office- 
holders of  ten  years  ago  sink  into  insignificance. 
Despite  all  these  sources  of  political  aid  and  strength, 
a  Republican  minority  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
was  turned  into  a  majority  of  forty-four.  Passaic 
County,  a  veritable  capital  of  American  industry, 
spoke  with  no  uncertain  sound;  so  did  Maine;  so  did 
West  Virginia;  so  did  Indiana;  so  did  Missouri;  so 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  199 

did  Kansas;  and  so  did  Washington.  Indeed,  in  some 
of  the  Western  States  that  were  carried  for  Democrat 
electors  in  1916,  it  would  have  been  only  courteous 
on  the  part  of  the  Democrat  organizations  to  move 
to  make  the  vote  for  the  Republican  candidates  unani- 
mous. The  handwriting  is  on  the  wall.  The  next 
President  of  the  United  States  will  be  a  Republican, 
and  he  will  have  behind  him  a  united  Republican  party, 
eager  to  solve  the  new  questions  in  a  spirit  of  justice 
and  of  human  sympathy,  and  determined  to  protect 
the  foundations  of  the  American  republic  against  all 
enemies,  whether  they  be  the  Central  Powers  and  their 
allies  without,  or  the  anarchists,  Bolshevists,  and 
enemies  of  liberty  and  social  order  within. 

The  American  people  are  tired  of  politics  given  over 
to  rhetoric  and  to  phrase-making,  to  carrying  water 
on  both  shoulders,  to  stooping  with  ear  to  the  ground 
an.d  trying  to  avoid  taking  a  definite  and  specific  posi- 
tion on  the  issues  raised  by  the  revolutionists  who 
are  busy  among  us.  The  American  people,  and  par- 
ticularly the  young  Americans,  both  men  and  women, 
where  women  are  already  exercising  the  suffrage,  are 
crying  out  for  leadership,  for  courage,  for  vision  and 
for  capacity  to  lead  the  thought  of  the  nation,  as  well 
as  to  formulate  its  public  action.  Plain  speaking  and 
not  fine  words  are  what  the  people  demand;  definite 
policies  and  not  platitudes  are  what  they  wish  to  have 
presented  for  their  judgment. 

Just  see  what  the  situation  now  is:  The  war  has  been 
triumphantly  won  by  the  courage,  the  endurance  and 


200  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

the  high  purpose  of  the  people  and  the  armies  of  France, 
of  Great  Britain,  of  Belgium,  and  of  Italy,  with  the 
powerful  aid  of  the  financial  and  economic  resources, 
and  of  the  splendid  fighting  forces  of  the  United  States. 
The  decisive  part  played  in  the  final  stage  of  the  war 
by  the  fighting  forces  of  America  on  land  and  on  sea, 
was  directly  due  to  the  resourcefulness,  the  capacity, 
the  intelligence  and  the  patriotism  of  the  American 
people,  and  was  in  spite  of  the  shortcomings,  the  ex- 
travagance, the  quarrels,  and  the  incapacity  of  many 
of  those  who  were  in  conspicuous  posts  of  official  power 
and  responsibility.  The  war  is  won,  and  as  a  result, 
the  people  of  the  United  States  are  bound  to  the 
splendid  peoples  who  have  been  their  allies  by  new 
ties  of  respect  and  affection,  which  no  selfish  interests 
and  no  enemy  propaganda  must  ever  be  allowed  to 
weaken,  much  less  to  break.  The  result  of  the  war  is 
a  new  world — new  in  many  of  its  interests;  new  in 
many  of  its  problems;  new  in  many  of  its  opportuni- 
ties. What  is  to  be  the  place  of  America  in  this  new 
world,  and  how  shall  the  Republican  party  do  its  full 
duty  to  the  country  which  it  was  born  to  protect  and 
to  serve  ? 

The  answer  is,  after  all,  comparatively  simple. 
America  is  ready  to  take  her  just  place  as  a  member 
of  a  society  of  like-minded  and  co-operating  nations, 
to  all  of  which  she  is  bound,  not  only  by  the  ties 
knit  by  the  events  of  the  war,  but  by  strong  personal 
and  family  bonds  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  our 
twentieth-century  population  has  been  drawn  from 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  201 

nearly  every  country  in  the  world.  The  position  of 
America  should  be  that  of  brother  and  friend,  not 
that  of  guardian  or  attempted  ruler.  We  shall  have 
quite  enough  to  do  in  minding  our  own  business  and 
in  taking  care  of  the  interests  of  our  own  immense 
population,  and  our  own  complex  system  of  trade  and 
of  industry,  without  assuming  any  part  of  the  duty 
of  minding  other  peoples'  business. 

The  Republican  party  is  certain  to  insist  that  the 
new  organization  of  the  world  shall  be  a  society  of 
nations,  and  not  a  society  without  nations.  It  will 
strive  constantly  to  strengthen  and  to  protect  the  in- 
tegrity and  the  freedom  of  action  of  America  in  order 
that  America,  tied  down  by  no  vain  and  empty  form- 
ulas, may  have  more  to  give  in  service  to  other  peoples 
and  in  co-operation  with  them.  The  Republican  party 
will  insist  that  the  fruits  of  the  war  be  not  lost  or 
traded  away;  that  insidious  German  propaganda  be 
not  listened  to;  and  that  the  manifest  attempts  to 
create  discord  between  America  on  the  one  hand,  and 
France,  Great  Britain,  and  Italy,  as  well  as  with  the 
new  nations  of  the  Czechoslovaks  and  the  Poles,  on 
the  other,  shall  not  be  permitted  to  succeed.  We  do 
not  propose  that  a  war  which  has  been  won  by  arms 
shall  be  lost  by  words.  We  do  not  propose  that  the 
sufferings  and  sorrows  of  France,  Great  Britain,  Bel- 
gium, Italy,  and  Serbia,  or  those  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  our  own  American  families,  shall  be  left  without  the 
full  results  of  victory  in  establishing  and  maintaining 
peace  and  good  order  in  the  world, 


202  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

There  is  grave  disappointment  among  Republicans 
that  the  American  delegation  to  the  Peace  Conference 
was  not  made  more  representative  of  the  international 
knowledge,  the  international  experience,  and  the  in- 
ternational statesmanship  of  our  country.  There  is 
grave  disappointment,  too,  that  the  terms  of  peace 
with  the  Central  Powers  were  not  quickly  and  speedily 
arrived  at,  announced  and  enforced,  as  they  might 
easily  have  been,  in  accordance  with  the  convincing 
formula  uttered  by  the  statesmen  of  France  early  in 
the  war,  namely:  Reparation,  Restitution,  Security. 
Had  this  course  been  pursued,  the  Central  Powers  and 
their  allies  would  have  known  by  this  time  exactly 
where  they  stood,  and  the  splendid  unity  and  concord 
of  the  Allies,  as  these  existed  on  November  n  last, 
would  have  been  preserved  without  the  present  dis- 
cussion of  the  myriad  details  of  a  new  world-order, 
that  are  quite  irrelevant  to  the  making  of  peace,  and 
as  to  which  sufficient  time  for  a  complete  understand- 
ing and  agreement  should  and  can  be  had.  The  great 
need  of  this  moment  is  to  establish  peace,  not  only  in 
form  but  in  fact;  to  enable  business,  industry,  and  agri- 
culture to  resume  their  normal  course;  to  restore  the 
broken  lines  of  trade  and  commerce,  both  at  home  and 
abroad;  to  give  men  and  women  assurance  in  their 
employment  and  in  the  conduct  of  their  business; 
and  then,  with  normal  life  resumed,  to  take  up  during 
as  many  months  as  may  be  needed,  the  study  of  ques- 
tions of  world  organization.  It  is  my  belief  this  is 
and  has  been  the  substantially  unajnimpus  view  of  the, 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  203 

most  competent  and  experienced  statesmen  in  every 
one  of  the  Allied  countries,  and  in  the  United  States; 
but  a  contrary  course  has  been  followed  and  its  results 
are  already  seen  to  be  unhappy.  We  are  wholly  in 
the  dark  as  to  what  is  really  being  said  and  done  in 
Paris.  The  fulsome  adulation  and  flattery  of  the  news- 
paper dispatches,  so  repugnant  to  right-thinking  Ameri- 
cans, reveal  little  and  conceal  much.  These  dispatches 
contradict  each  other,  not  only  on  successive  days, 
but  on  the  same  day,  and  no  one  in  America,  despite 
the  loud  protestations  of  open  diplomacy,  has  any 
clear  or  accurate  idea  of  what  the  American  delegation 
is  pressing  upon  the  Peace  Conference  or  how  it  is 
being  received.  What  we  do  know  is  that  while  peace 
waits,  the  splendid  unity  and  spirit  of  the  Allies  are 
being  destroyed  by  irrelevant  and  largely  mysterious 
debates. 

The  spokesmen  of  the  Republican  party,  both  in 
and  out  of  Congress,  have  met  this  deplorable  and 
unhappy  situation  with  high  patriotism,  and  with 
almost  superhuman  patience.  They  have  held  that 
since  our  country  is  engaged  in  a  great  international 
discussion,  we  must  do  everything  in  our  power  to 
support  our  official  representatives,  even  though  we 
do  not  know  what  they  are  doing,  but  suspect  they 
are  doing  many  things  which  we  cannot  approve. 
An  occasional  speech  has  been  delivered  on  the  floor 
of  the  Senate  or  the  House  by  way  of  warning  to  the 
people  that  sooner  or  later  the  spokesmen  of  the  Re- 
publican party  will  deem  it  their  duty  to  speak  out 


204  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

and  to  tell  the  truth  as  they  see  it.  We  cannot,  how- 
ever, afford  to  shirk  our  responsibility  for  the  protec- 
tion and  defense  of  American  independence  and  Ameri- 
can institutions,  and  we  must  not,  through  silence, 
allow  sinister  influences  that  are  antagonistic  to  Ameri- 
can principles,  and  that  will  in  time  alter  or  overthrow 
our  government,  to  enter  unchallenged  into  our  life. 

Two  events  have  taken  place  in  quick  succession, 
which  call  for  frank  and  clear  speech.  Just  as  the 
autocratic  and  criminal  government  of  the  Bolsheviks 
in  Russia  seemed  to  be  tottering  to  its  fall,  its  leaders, 
with  their  hands  still  dripping  with  the  blood  of  their 
victims,  were  actually  invited  to  confer  with  represen- 
tatives of  free  and  liberty-loving  peoples.  This  step 
is  in  effect  that  "entering  into  a  compact  with  crime" 
which  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M. 
Pichon,  only  a  few  weeks  ago  said  should  not  be  done. 
From  a  moral  as  well  as  from  a  political  point  of  view, 
this  action,  no  matter  what  its  excuse,  deserves  only 
most  vigorous  denunciation.  If,  as  has  been  suggested, 
it  is  the  price  paid  for  relieving  from  a  dangerous  posi- 
tion the  tiny  military  forces  landed  on  the  north  coast 
of  Russia,  then  it  deserves  something  worse;  for  neither 
American  nor  British  soldiers  would  ever  ask  for  com- 
promise with  criminals  as  a  substitute  for  their  own 
courage  and  their  own  noble  patriotism. 

The  worst  criminals  produced  by  the  war  are  the 
Russian  Bolsheviks.  Even  the  horrors  perpetrated 
by  the  Austrians  in  Serbia,  and  the  outrages  committed 
by  the  Germans  in  Belgium,  seem  mere  exhibitions  of 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  205 

temper  when  compared  with  the  systematic  cruelty 
and  crime  practised  by  the  Bolshevik  regime  against 
everything  in  Russia  that  represented  law,  order  and 
liberty,  or  that  was  capable  of  building  upon  the  ruins 
left  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Romanoff  dynasty.  To 
desert  the  people  of  Russia  now  is  an  act  of  astounding 
folly  and  ingratitude.  To  strain  at  gnats  like  Huerta 
and  William  of  Hohenzollern,  and  to  swallow  camels 
like  Lenine  and  Trotsky,  is  certainly  a  curious  pro- 
ceeding. If  one  were  seeking  for  ways  to  aid  our 
enemies  to  re-establish  their  strength  and  their  menace, 
his  first  step  would  be  to  leave  the  Russian  people  to 
their  tender  mercies. 

Formal  conference  with  the  Bolsheviks  was  bad 
enough,  and  we  may  well  contrast  with  this  action  the 
message  which  the  stout-hearted  and  fearless  Mayor 
of  Seattle  sent  a  few  days  ago  to  American  Bolsheviks 
who  were  organizing  war  on  the  peace  and  order  of  that 
splendid  city.  His  upholding  of  law  and  order  is  the 
short  and  easy  way  to  deal  with  Bolsheviks.  But 
once  a  conference  had  been  determined  upon,  surely 
there  could  have  been  found  among  the  hundred  mil- 
lions of  Americans  some  man  or  woman  of  honor,  of 
untarnished  reputation,  and  with  a  record  for  public 
service  who  could  have  borne  the  credentials  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States  without  soiling  or 
discrediting  them.  The  appointment  actually  made 
has  affronted  our  decent  citizenship  and  aggrieved  the 
moral  and  religious  sentiment  of  the  country.  No 
one,  however  blinded  by  partisanship,  has  been  found 


206  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

to  rise  in  defense  of  this  act.  It  is  truly  an  astonish- 
ing performance. 

We  saw  one  journalistic  adulator  sent,  without  official 
commission  but  with  high  authority,  to  muddle  our 
affairs  with  Mexico,  and  we  saw  him  later  turn  up 
among  the  most  active  friends  and  agents  of  our  Teu- 
ton enemies.  We  were  told  in  explanation  that,  al- 
though without  previous  training  or  public  experience, 
he  had  received  this  important  commission  as  a  reward 
for  having  written  in  flattering  terms  of  the  President 
and  his  policies.  It  appears  that  this  new  appointee 
also  has  busied  himself  with  his  pen,  and  that  appar- 
ently just  because  he  has  published  a  crude  and  fulsome 
eulogy  of  the  President's  personality  and  public  con- 
duct, he  has  been  selected  to  represent  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  Not  a  fraction  of  one  per  cent  of  those 
who  know  his  record  would  be  willing  to  take  his  hand, 
and  yet  he  is  to  represent  America  at  a  conference  on 
the  vitally  important  question  of  the  future  of  the 
Russian  people  and  their  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

We  have  become  accustomed  during  these  past 
six  years  to  the  President's  fondness  for  surrounding 
himself  with  intellectual  and  political  midgets,  but  we 
have  hitherto  been  spared  anything  so  shocking  as 
this  appointment.  What  are  the  clergy  going  to  say 
about  it  ?  What  are  the  women  of  the  country,  now 
granted  the  vote  in  many  States,  going  to  say  about 
it  ?  What  are  high-minded  patriots  and  jealous  lovers 
of  our  country's  honor,  regardless  of  section  or  party, 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  207 

going  to  say  about  it  ?  I  for  one  do  not  believe  that 
true  patriotism  and  decent  feeling  are  dead  in  the  land. 

While  our  eyes  are  turned  to  the  Peace  Conference 
and  our  minds  are  filled  with  international  problems, 
we  are  drifting  at  home,  without  executive  or  legisla- 
tive leadership,  in  waters  filled  with  rocks  and  float- 
ing mines.  These  rocks  and  floating  mines  are  the 
domestic  problems  which  become  every  day  more  in- 
sistent, and  whose  solution  we  must  not  postpone  one 
instant  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary.  What  is 
needed  is  more  action  and  less  talk.  The  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  by  far  the  most  important 
single  political  document  of  modern  times,  was  com- 
pletely drafted  between  May  25  and  September  17. 
There  is  no  reason,  save  mental  and  political  laziness 
and  inertia,  for  dragging  out  over  five  years  a  solution 
of  the  railway  problem,  or  for  allowing  the  industrial 
situation  to  continue  to  develop  domestic  wars  which 
are  already  disastrous,  and  might  easily  become  com- 
parable in  their  effects  with  the  international  war 
through  which  we  have  just  passed. 

In  order  to  deal  with  these  problems  in  an  American 
spirit  and  in  the  interest  of  all  America,  we  must  get 
back  quickly  to  our  American  form  of  government. 
Under  pressure  of  the  necessities  of  war  we  turned  our 
government,  for  the  time  being,  into  an  autocracy 
and  a  bureaucracy  which  Russia  of  the  Tsars  might 
well  have  envied.  There  was  manifold  interference 
with  individual  liberty,  with  civil  rights,  with  trade 
and  commerce,  and  with  all  other  normal  activities 


208  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

of  a  free  people.  Congress  became  a  rubber  stamp, 
and  public  discussion  of  public  policies  practically 
disappeared.  As  war  measures,  all  these  were  defen- 
sible. We  had  to  help  to  win  the  war,  to  win  it  quickly, 
and  to  win  it  completely.  This  has  been  done  and  we 
have  now  to  return  our  government  to  its  proper 
functions  and  to  restore  freedom  to  the  individual 
and  to  business. 

Of  course,  there  are  those  who  believe  in  transform- 
ing our  American  republic  into  a  socialistic  democracy, 
and  they  would  be  glad  to  continue  permanently  the 
autocratic  and  bureaucratic  system  which  the  war 
developed;  and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  socialism 
is  the  twin  brother  of  autocracy,  and  that  like  autoc- 
racy it  is  the  deadly  enemy  of  republicanism  and  of 
individual  liberty. 

The  people  are  now  everywhere  asking  questions  of 
business  and  of  the  relation  of  government  to  business; 
questions  of  finance  and  of  financial  provision  for  an 
expanding  foreign  trade;  questions  of  labor  and  of 
the  workingman's  ambition  to  have  his  full  share  of 
the  rewards  and  the  satisfactions  of  American  life; 
questions  of  agricultural  development  and  of  the 
utilization  of  the  nation's  resources;  and,  above  all, 
questions  of  the  administration  and  control  of  the 
nation's  great  systems  of  transportation  and  communi- 
cation. All  these  cry  aloud  for  answer  and  the  Demo- 
crat administration  has  no  answer  to  give.  So  long 
as  these  questions  are  unanswered,  and  so  long  as 
there  is  wide-spread  anxiety  and  uncertainty  as  to 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  209 

future  policies,  just  so  long  we  offer  invitation  to  the 
activities  of  those  desperate  revolutionaries  who  would 
destroy  liberty  and  order  to  set  up  a  new  tyranny  of 
the  mob,  who  would  overthrow  equality  of  citizenship 
in  order  to  establish  a  privileged  ruling  class,  and  who 
would  declare  war  on  American  institutions  in  the 
name  of  that  mad  and  murderous  Bolshevism  which 
is  just  now  reducing  the  people  of  Russia  to  impotence 
and  slavery.  The  way  of  escape  from  all  this  is  to 
press  forward  quickly  to  the  solution  of  our  domestic 
problems  with  wisdom,  with  human  sympathy,  with 
courage,  and  with  constructive  power. 

The  greatest  and  most  far-reaching  of  these  prob- 
lems is  that  of  labor.  Here  very  great  progress  had 
been  made  until  the  I.  W.  W.  movement  and  Bolshev- 
ism appeared  in  America.  The  hours  of  work  in 
essential  industries  were  no  longer  excessive  and  were 
being  steadily  shortened;  wages  had  risen  greatly, 
both  in  money  value  and  in  purchasing  power;  con- 
ditions attaching  to  land  work  had  been  improved  in 
healthfulness  and  in  attractiveness;  collective  bar- 
gaining was  well  established  over  an  increasing  area, 
both  of  territory  and  of  industry.  The  path  of  prog- 
ress lies  not  in  returning  to  a  state  of  industrial  war, 
but  rather  in  applying  to  industrial  conflicts  precisely 
the  same  principles  of  justice,  of  understanding  and 
of  sympathy,  by  which  we  hope  hereafter  to  avoid 
international  conflicts. 

The  labor  problem,  so-called,  is  not,  I  think,  pri- 
marily a  question  of  wages  or  of  hours  of  work;  it  is 


210  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

primarily  a  human  problem.  Just  so  soon  as  we  rec- 
ognize that  wages  are  paid,  not  out  of  savings,  or  cap- 
ital, but  out  of  products,  and  that  the  greater  the 
product  the  more  there  will  be  available  for  wages, 
we  shall  have  begun  to  get  on  the  right  track.  The 
next  step  is  to  realize  that  product  is  the  result  of  co- 
operation, not  of  capital  and  labor,  considered  as  dead, 
abstract  things  whose  names  are  spelled  with  large 
letters,  but  of  the  co-operation  of  three  elements,  all 
of  which  are  human:  the  man  who  works  with  his 
hands,  the  man  who  works  with  his  head,  and  the  man 
who  works  with  his  savings.  In  each  case  the  essential 
thing  is  not  the  hands,  the  head,  or  the  savings;  the 
essential  thing  is  the  man. 

Let  us  establish  co-operation  and  conference  between 
these  three  types  of  producers,  not  alone  when  diffi- 
culties and  disputes  have  arisen  or  are  about  to  rise, 
but  as  a  steady  policy  in  the  daily  conduct  of  the  par- 
ticular business.  By  taking  counsel  together  as  a 
means  of  prevention,  these  three  types  of  men  will 
come,  after  a  while,  to  need  very  little  counsel  together 
as  a  means  of  cure.  Action  such  as  this  is  sometimes 
called  industrial  democracy.  That  is  not  a  very  happy 
or  a  very  exact  term,  but  if  it  assists  in  making  clear 
what  I  have  in  mind  then  I  am  willing  to  use  it.  If 
we  can  deal  satisfactorily  with  the  labor  question,  the 
next  few  years  will  be  years  of  the  greatest  prosperity 
in  the  industrial  history  of  the  American  people. 

The  reason  why  the  government  was  obliged  to 
take  over  and  to  operate  the  railways  of  the  country 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  211 

as  a  war  measure  was  because  our  uncertain  and  un- 
wise policies  of  the  last  thirty  years  had  put  the  rail- 
ways in  a  position  where  they  could  not  themselves 
co-operate  as  the  government  wished  without  violat- 
ing the  law.  The  first  thing  that  the  government 
railway  administration  did  was  to  set  all  restrictive 
laws  aside  and  to  operate  the  railways  with  a  view  to 
meeting  the  necessities  of  the  moment.  This  fact 
alone  conclusively  demonstrates  to  every  thoughtful 
man  the  unwisdom  of  our  policy  or  policies  toward 
the  railways  during  the  past  generation.  We  had  in- 
jured or  ruined  their  credit  so  that  they  could  not 
get  money  for  additional  terminals,  for  needed  rolling 
stock,  or  for  improvements  that  were  imperatively  de- 
manded. We  had  prevented  them  from  combining  to 
divide  the  business  of  a  given  territory  to  the  best 
advantage,  and  we  had  put  them  under  forty-nine 
different  sets  of  masters — namely,  an  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  and  forty-eight  separate  state  com- 
missions or  systems  of  railway  control.  It  is  important 
to  remember  that  we  ourselves  had  done  these  things 
and  not  the  railways.  There  had  been  very  grave 
abuses  in  the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  railway 
systems  years  ago,  and  just  resentment  at  these  abuses 
had  played  a  large  part  in  bringing  about  the  situa- 
tion which  existed  in  1917.  Perhaps  now  we  have 
learned  our  lesson  and  are  ready  to  deal  with  the 
transportation  systems  of  the  country  as  an  important 
national  asset  to  be  preserved  and  developed  for  na- 
tional service.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  we 


212  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

should  take  either  five  years  or  two  years  to  work  out 
and  adopt  a  sound  policy  toward  the  railways. 

The  ruling  principles  are  simple,  and  may  perhaps 
be  stated  in  this  way: 

1.  Government  ownership  and  operation  of  railways  have  been 
ineffective  and  unfortunate  in  Europe,  and  while  compatible  with 
an  autocratic  or  a  socialistic  state  are  incompatible  with  a  republic 
unless  that  republic  is  to  drift  either  toward  autocracy  or  toward 
socialistic  democracy.     To  establish  government  ownership  and 
operation  of  railways  would  be  to  take  a  long  step  toward  changing 
our  American  form  of  government. 

2.  Private  ownership  and  operation  of  railways,  despite  abuses, 
particularly  in  the  early  days,  have  contributed  enormously  to 
the  development  of  the  United  States.     They  have  offered  unex- 
ampled opportunities  for  initiative  and  organizing  skill.    They 
had  developed  a   transportation  system  which  was  without  an 
equal  in  the  world  for  cheapness,  comfort,  speed,  and  public  service. 

3.  Under  government  ownership  and  operation  of  railways  all 
officials  and  employees  of  the  railway  systems  would  become  part 
of  a  great  ruling  bureaucracy.    They  would  lose  their  sense  of 
initiative  and  independence,  and  they  as  well  as  passengers  and 
shippers  would  be  deprived  of  any  disinterested  government  tri- 
bunal to  which  to  appeal  for  redress  of  grievances. 

4.  The  experience  of  government  railway  administration  during 
the  war  has  clearly  demonstrated  the  futility  of  attempting  to 
continue  to  apply  the  provisions  of  the  Sherman  Act  to  transporta- 
tion systems:   combination,  co-operation,  and  the  pooling  of  busi- 
ness are  an  absolute  necessity  if  the  railways  are  to  continue  to 
serve  the   public   successfully.     Such   combination,   co-operation, 
and  pooling  can,  however,  only  be  permitted  under  government 
supervision  and  control. 

5.  While  private  ownership  and  operation  of  railways  are  not 
only  advantageous  but  probably  necessary  to  the  continuance  of 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  213 

the  American  system  of  government,  the  railways  themselves  are 
not  private  undertakings.  They  are  charged  with  a  public  interest 
and  are  distinctly  public  service  institutions.  For  this  additional 
reason,  and  because  of  experience  in  this  and  other  countries, 
government  supervision  and  control  are  essential. 

6.  Government  supervision  and  control  of  railways  involve  large 
powers  over  capital  issues,  service,  rates,  and  wages.     This  means 
absolute  ruin  for  the  railway  systems  unless  with  the  supervision 
and  control  there  goes  a  just  measure  of  financial  responsibility. 
In  other  words,  the  government  must  co-operate  with  the  railways 
in  making  it  possible  for  them  to  serve  the  public  as  the  govern- 
ment may  either  desire  or  compel.    One  way  to  do  this  is  to  estab- 
lish rates  at  a  point  which  will  produce  a  return  sufficient  to  pay 
interest  on  bonded  debt  and  dividends  of  a  fixed  minimum  amount 
upon  capital  stock,  provided  that  earnings  in  excess  of  the  amount 
necessary  for  these  purposes  shall  be  applied  in  equal  parts  to  re- 
ward labor,  to  effect  improvements  in  permanent  way  and  rolling 
stock,  and  finally  to  reward  investors. 

7.  Create  a  Federal  Transportation  Board  to  take  the  place  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  with  supervision  of  all  trans- 
portation whether  by  land  or  by  water,  and  provide  that  member- 
ship in  the  federal  transportation  system  shall  carry  with  it  such 
advantages  that  no  existing  railway,  and  none  hereafter  organized, 
could  afford  to*  remain  outside  of  it.     Pursue  in  this  respect  a  policy 
similar  to  that  which  has  been  successful  in  building  up  the  Federal 
Reserve  banking  system. 

8.  Remove  railways  that  are  members  of  the  federal  transporta- 
tion system  from  the  jurisdiction  or  control  of  state  commissions, 
while  providing  that  local  and  regional  interest  in  and  concern 
for  railway  systems  be  fully  recognized.    Treat  all  transportation 
in  law,  as  it  is  in  fact,  as  part  of  one  great  system  of  national  trans- 
portation, regardless  of  whether  a  particular  shipment  crosses  a 
state  line  or  not.    The  Republican  National  Convention  of  1916 
emphatically  supported  this  policy. 


214  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

9.  Settlement  of  the  relation  to  exist  between  the  railways  and 
the  government  is  not  a  matter  for  railway  managers,  owners  of 
securities  and  government  officials  alone.  It  is  a  matter  which 
interests  every  citizen  not  only  as  a  potential  passenger  or  shipper, 
but  as  an  American  concerned  in  the  protection  of  those  fundamental 
principles  upon  which  the  country's  liberty,  opportunity,  and  pros- 
perity have  been  built. 

Given  these  principles,  it  should  not  be  difficult  for 
a  disinterested  body  of  men  to  prepare  in  a  short  time 
a  bill  for  the  exclusive  federal  supervision  of  the  rail- 
way systems  of  the  country.  Were  it  announced  that 
this  was  to  be  done,  the  wheels  of  industry  would  begin 
to  revolve  and  trade  to  expand  without  an  hour's 
delay. 

The  relation  of  the  Federal  Government  to  the 
country's  business  ought  to  be  settled  upon  the  basis 
of  the  experience  of  the  last  thirty  years,  and  by  the 
application  of  principles  similar  to  those  that  have 
been  suggested  for  the  treatment  of  the  transportation 
problem.  The  attempt  to  enforce  competition  by 
law  and  to  punish  co-operation  has  been  a  dismal 
failure,  and  it  was  dropped  by  the  government  the 
moment  we  entered  the  war.  A  constructive  policy 
toward  business  will  provide  for  the  largest  amount  of 
initiative  and  co-operation  on  the  part  of  individuals 
and  corporations,  while  assuring  the  same  measure  of 
effective  federal  supervision  and  control  that  now  ex- 
ists in  the  case  of  the  banks,  and  that  ought  to  exist 
in  the  case  of  the  railways.  We  need  by  the  side  of 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the  Federal  Trans- 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  215 

portation  Board,  a  Federal  Trade  Board  with  anal- 
ogous powers  and  duties  in  relation  to  the  producing, 
manufacturing,  and  shipping  industries  of  the  country. 

To  be  sure,  these  problems  are  vast  and  touch  di- 
rectly the  life  and  interest  of  every  American,  and  for 
that  reason  they  are  problems  which  Americans  must 
solve  for  themselves.  How  better  can  they  set  out  to 
solve  them  than  in  the  patient,  long-suffering,  and 
deeply  patriotic  spirit  of  Abraham  Lincoln  ?  He  was 
born  one  hundred  and  ten  years  ago  into  a  world 
which  men  then  thought  as  troubled  and  as  difficult 
as  we  now  think  ours.  The  menace  of  Napoleon  hung 
over  Europe  and  the  people  of  Great  Britain  had  un- 
dertaken, with  all  their  resourcefulness,  their  energy 
and  their  determination,  the  task  of  his  overthrow  in 
order  that  the  newly-established  liberties  of  the  people 
might  not  be  limited  or  lost.  While  Lincoln  was  yet 
a  child  on  the  frontier  in  southern  Indiana,  Napoleon 
was  a  prisoner  at  St.  Helena  and  was  no  more  to  trouble 
Europe  or  the  world.  Then,  as  now,  American  ques- 
tions went  hand  in  hand  with  international  questions, 
and  as  Lincoln  grew  up  his  mind  was  turned  toward 
matters  of  domestic  government,  of  the  settlement 
and  organization  of  new  territories,  of  human  freedom 
and  human  slavery,  and  finally  of  the  preservation 
of  the  Union  itself.  No  man  can  tell  what  might  have 
happened  to  America  had  Abraham  Lincoln  not  been 
elected  to  the  presidency  in  1860,  but  of  one  thing  we 
may  be  sure :  The  history  of  the  world  from  that  d-ay 


216  PROBLEMS  OF  PEACE 

to  this  would  have  been  strangely  different.  With 
that  wonderful  combination  of  qualities  of  heart  and 
head  which  enabled  him  to  carry  the  country  safely 
through  the  crisis  of  four  years  of  civil  war,  and  which 
then  placed  him  in  the  Pantheon  of  the  world's  noblest 
heroes  and  servants,  he  made  possible  the  America 
which  we  know  and  love,  the  America  of  almost  un- 
limited power,  of  lofty  purpose,  and  of  stern  deter- 
mination not  to  let  liberty  wither  or  die  in  its  hands. 
The  question  to  be  settled  by  the  people  in  1860  was 
whether  the  Union  should  be  preserved  or  permitted 
to  dissolve.  Abraham  Lincoln  said  that  it  should  be 
preserved  at  all  costs,  and  that  under  no  circum- 
stances should  it  be  permitted  to  dissolve.  The  ques- 
tion to  be  settled  by  the  people  in  1920  will  be  whether 
the  American  nation  shall  remain  upon  its  founda- 
tion of  ordered  liberty  and  free  opportunity,  or  whether 
it  shall  be  so  modified,  or  perhaps  even  so  largely 
overturned,  that  there  will  arise  in  its  stead  a  social 
democracy,  autocracy's  nearest  and  best  friend,  to 
take  over  the  management  of  each  individual's  life 
and  business,  to  order  his  comings  and  his  goings,  to 
limit  his  occupations  and  his  savings,  and  to  say 
that  the  great  experiment  of  Washington  and  Hamil- 
ton, of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  of  Marshall  and  Web- 
ster, of  Adams  and  Clay,  and  of  Lincoln  and  Roose- 
velt has  come  to  an  end,  and  gone  to  join  the  list  of 
failures  in  free  government  with  the  ancient  republics 
of  Greece  and  Rome  and  their  later  followers  of  Venice 
and  Genoa. 


AND  AFTER-PEACE  217 

Lincoln  quoted  Scripture  to  his  purpose  when  he 
said  at  Springfield  in  1858:  "'A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  government  can- 
not endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I 
do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not 
expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  that  it  will 
cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing,  or 
all  the  other." 

We  may  almost  echo  his  exact  words,  and  say  that 
a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,  a  nation 
cannot  endure  half  American  and  half  Bolshevik.  I 
do  not  expect  the  nation  to  continue  divided,  but  I 
do  expect  and  believe  that  under  the  leadership  and 
guidance  of  the  Republican  party  it  will  become  all 
American. 

S~\       A          '*_,     '  f  , 

1 1 1  <  I  •  c  s  ,  /» f  r   %  /^  5  f~         /y     / 

/ 


XIII 

THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 
ITS  PRESENT  DUTY  AND  OPPORTUNITY 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Union  League  of  Philadelphia, 
November  22,  1919 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 
ITS  PRESENT  DUTY  AND  OPPORTUNITY 

These  are  significant  and  stirring  days.  The  priv- 
ilege of  speaking  before  the  Union  League  on  public 
questions  of  high  importance  at  such  a  time  is  one 
which  I  greatly  appreciate  and  for  which  I  desire  to 
express  my  hearty  thanks. 

It  was  no  less  a  personality  than  Abraham  Lincoln 
who  spoke  of  the  Union  League  as  prompted  in  its 
formation  by  motives  of  the  highest  patriotism.  Then 
he  added:  "I  have  many  a  time  heard  of  its  doing 
good,  and  no  one  has  charged  it  with  doing  any  wrong." 
Surely,  gentlemen,  that  was  a  precious  tribute  to  those 
who  heard  it  spoken,  and  it  will  remain  a  precious 
tribute  in  the  memories  of  their  children  so  long  as 
this  republic  shall  endure. 

I  said  just  now  that  these  are  significant  and  stir- 
ring days.  They  are  significant  because  they  are  to 
record  the  making  of  choices  and  the  formulation  of 
policies  that  have  not  to  do  with  the  routine  or  the 
mere  details  of  our  daily  life,  but  that  reach  down  to 
the  very  foundations  of  government  and  of  civil  so- 
ciety. They  are  stirring  because  they  make  com- 
pelling appeal  to  every  American  patriot  to  rouse  him- 
self from  lethargy,  from  indifference,  and  from  over- 

221 


222  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

confidence,  in  order  that  he  may  take  his  place  in  the 
great  army  of  convinced  believers  in  the  republic  who 
propose  to  do  victorious  battle  to  defend  the  faith  of 
the  fathers  and  to  protect  the  achievements  and  ac- 
complishments of  their  sons. 

For  some  time  past  there  has  been  throughout  the 
country  an  unjust  and  an  unworthy  tendency  to  de- 
cry politics  and  to  urge  the  youth  of  this  generation 
to  hold  themselves  aloof  from  its  contamination.  No 
teaching  could  be  more  false  or  more  unpatriotic. 
Politics  is  not  office-seeking;  politics  is  not  the  use  of 
the  devious  arts  of  the  demagogue  or  the  self-seeker 
to  secure  power  over  men.  Politics  is  one  of  the 
noblest  and  finest  words  in  our  language.  It  is  noth- 
ing but  the  doctrine  of  how  to  live  together  happily 
and  helpfully  in  organized  society.  In  an  autocracy, 
whether  imperialist  or  socialist,  there  will  be  no  need 
for  politics.  In  an  autocracy  our  politics  will  be  made 
for  us  by  some  one  else.  In  a  democratic  republic 
we  make  our  own  politics.  In  a  republic  every  good 
citizen  is  or  should  be  an  active  politician,  because 
free  government  will  not  take  care  of  itself.  American 
institutions  will  not  preserve  themselves.  They  need 
the  care,  they  need  the  devotion,  they  need  the  pro- 
tection of  thoughtful,  high-minded,  and  patriotic  men 
and  women  who  are  deeply  interested  in  politics  and 
deeply  concerned  about  politics.  Especially  should 
every  effort  be  made  to  draw  into  persistent  political 
activity  and  responsibility  the  youth  of  to-day  who  are 
to  be  the  nation's  leaders  of  to-morrow.  If  the  people 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  223 

are  not  going  to  run  this  government,  who  is  going  to 
run  it  ?  If  we  are  not  ourselves  to  shape  policies  for 
our  happiness,  our  comfort,  and  our  protection,  who 
is  going  to  shape  them  ?  There  are  active,  persistent, 
and  well-organized  minorities  quite  ready  to  take  this 
job  off  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
if  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  ready  to 
maintain  and  conduct  their  own  government. 

A  free  government  cannot  be  maintained  except  on 
the  basis  of  political  principle.  There  are  only  two 
great  classes  of  motive  which  drive  men  in  life,  whether 
it  be  their  individual  life,  their  community  life,  or  their 
relation  to  the  state.  One  of  those  motives  is  prin- 
ciple and  the  other  motive  is  interest.  If  you  are  not 
driven  by  principle,  then  you  give  way  to  interest. 
A  government  that  is  nothing  but  a  conflict  of  inter- 
ests, nothing  but  the  grasping  and  grabbing  for  priv- 
ilege and  for  power  of  this  individual  and  that,  of  this 
group  and  that,  will  produce  chaos,  anarchy,  and  ruin 
just  so  soon  as  the  conflict  becomes  sufficiently  wide- 
spread and  sufficiently  general.  Over  against  interest 
we  put  principle — sound,  far-reaching,  constructive 
political  principle.  A  body  of  men  and  women  who 
gather  about  a  principle  or  a  set  of  principles  constitute 
a  party.  The  reason  why  parties  are  necessary  to 
free  government  is  that  principles  are  necessary  to 
free  government,  and  organized  bodies  of  men  and 
women,  that  is,  parties,  are  needed  to  maintain,  to 
enforce,  and  to  apply  principles.  The  spirit  of  party 
which  Washington  decried  in  his  Farewell  Address 


224  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

was  the  spirit  of  faction,  self-seeking  and  turbulent. 
He  was  himself  an  earnest  defender  of  those  principles 
adherence  to  which  distinguishes  a  true  party  from  a 
faction. 

See  what  has  happened  in  the  history  of  free  govern- 
ment in  Europe.  There  the  division  into  parties  has 
been  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  between  the 
conservative  and  the  liberal.  The  conservative  party 
reflects  the  natural  feeling  of  men  who  do  not  wish 
to  go  ahead  too  fast,  who  wish  to  hold  to  the  old 
forms  that  have  come  down  from  long  ago,  and  to 
yield  just  as  little  as  possible  to  the  spirit  of  progress 
and  of  change,  to  what  we  call  the  modern  spirit.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  liberal  party  is  made  up  of  those 
who  wish  to  share  and  to  lead  in  the  movement  of 
opinion  among  men,  who  are  anxious  to  shape  old 
institutions  to  meet  new  conditions,  and  who  wish  to 
hold  themselves  open-minded  and  sympathetic  toward 
each  new  demand  and  each  new  aspiration  that  arises 
among  great  masses  of  men.  The  history  of  European 
politics  shows  that  for  more  than  two  hundred  years 
the  pendulum  has  swung  now  to  the  conservative,  now 
to  the  liberal,  side,  and  that  free  government  in  Great 
Britain,  free  government  in  France,  free  government 
in  Switzerland,  free  government  in  Holland,  free  gov- 
ernment in  the  Scandinavian  countries,  has  been 
worked  out  by  the  play  of  these  two  sets  of  forces. 
But  in  the  United  States  we  are  all  liberals  in  the 
European  sense.  We  have  never  had  in  the  United 
States  a  conservative  party  as  that  term  is  known 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  225 

abroad,  because  every  American  has  wished  for  prog- 
ress, every  American  has  wished  for  advance,  every 
American  has  wished  for  improvement.  So  in  this 
country  we  divided  upon  a  quite  different  line.  We 
divided  in  the  very  beginning  of  our  nation's  history 
into  those  who  believed  in  the  power,  the  force,  and  the 
ideals  of  a  great  nation  that  had  been  created  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  those  who  would 
deny  to  that  nation  many  attributes  of  nationhood, 
who  feared  the  strength  of  its  government,  and  who 
would  put  shackles  upon  its  activities  in  the  fear  that 
otherwise  civil  liberty  might  be  lost. 

George  Washington  and  Alexander  Hamilton  were 
the  leaders  of  the  party  of  construction  and  national- 
ism. Thomas  Jefferson  and  his  friends  were  the  lead- 
ers of  the  party  of  negation  and  doubt.  Americans 
passed  naturally  according  to  their  temperament  or 
their  convictions  into  one  or  the  other  of  these  groups. 
There  were  those  who  believed  with  all  their  heart  in 
the  nation,  in  its  calling,  in  its  opportunity,  and  in  its 
power.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  those  who 
doubted  and  held  back.  Mr.  President,  the  reason 
why  the  Democrat  party  has  never  pursued  a  logical 
and  consistent  policy  from  the  day  of  its  foundation 
until  to-day,  the  reason  why  it  could  never  pursue 
a  consistent  and  persistent  public  policy,  is  that  it 
could  not  continue  to  doubt  the  power  and  reality  of 
the  nation  and  still  survive.  That  fact  speedily  con- 
verted the  Democrat  party  from  a  party  of  negation 
to  a  party  of  opportunism.  To  save  itself  from  ex- 


226  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

tinction  it  had,  from  time  to  time,  to  use  the  weapons 
of  its  opponents.  So  from  the  very  beginning,  from 
the  day  when  Thomas  Jefferson  made  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  in  flat  violation  of  his  political  principles  and 
urged  that  the  Constitution  be  amended  so  as  specif- 
ically to  authorize  his  act,  the  party  that  he  founded 
became  a  party  of  opportunism.  If  to-day  Thomas 
Jefferson  could  rise  from  his  grave  and  witness  some 
of  the  deeds  done  at  Washington  and  hear  some  of 
the  words  spoken  at  Washington  and  elsewhere  by 
those  who  bear  his  party  name,  he  would  be  amazed 
and  bewildered  beyond  all  expression. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  reason  why  the  Republican 
party  has  been,  first  under  one  name  and  then  under 
another,  a  logical  and  constructive  party,  the  reason 
why  it  has  to  its  credit  the  extraordinary  list  of  achieve- 
ments that  make  so  large  a  part  of  the  history  of  our 
nation,  is  that  its  fundamental  principle  is  faith  in  the 
republic  and  belief  in  the  republic's  power  as  a  nation 
to  progress  and  to  solve  the  problems  of  to-morrow 
in  the  light  of  the  experience  of  yesterday. 

Into  the  making  of  the  Republican  party  there  have 
gone  four  sets  of  influences : 

Fir  sty  the  strong  and  constructive  nationalism  of 
Washington,  Hamilton,  Jay,  Marshall,  and  Webster — 
the  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  this  government. 

Second,  the  passionate  Americanism  of  Henry  Clay, 
of  Kentucky,  with  his  zeal  for  the  upbuilding  of  Ameri- 
can industry,  for  the  development  of  American  roads 
and  canals,  for  the  settlement  of  the  then  unbroken 


TEE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  227 

West,  and  his  sincere  sympathy  with  the  down- 
trodden and  oppressed  all  over  the  world. 

Third,  the  moral  and  political  idealism  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  man  who  from  the  high  seat  of  his  lofty 
spirit  presided  with  unruffled  calm  over  the  most 
disturbed  and  troubled  years  in  the  history  of  the 
republic. 

Then,  last,  there  was  the  broad  human  sympathy, 
the  keen  insight  into  modern  industrial  and  social 
needs  and  problems,  the  unbounded  vitality  for  ser- 
vice, and  the  unflinching  Americanism  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

Out  of  those  four  elements  of  faith  and  of  action  the 
constructive,  advancing  Republican  party  of  to-day 
has  been  built.  If  that  great  party  shall  be  true  to 
itself,  to  its  principles,  to  its  ideals,  and  shall  exert  it- 
self to  meet  face  to  face  the  people  of  the  United 
States  who  may  be  troubled  or  in  doubt,  the  future 
of  this  country  will  be  secure  and  the  great  problems 
that  are  awaiting  our  solution  will  be  solved  in  the 
general  interest  and  in  a  way  to  promote  the  progress 
of  our  nation  and  of  the  race. 

The  English  historian  Trevelyan  was  true  to  fact 
when  he  wrote  of  the  Republican  pa  ty  as  "a  famous 
and  high-principled  party."  This  it  has  been  from 
the  very  beginnings  of  this  nation,  under  whatever 
name  its  adherents  have  assembled.  The  Republican 
party  has  made  its  full  share  of  mistakes,  and  its  fame, 
its  authority,  and  its  opportunity  have  attracted  to 
its  ranks  some  who  were  unworthy  to  bear  its  name. 


228  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  history  of  free  government 
records  no  equally  important,  continuing,  and  construc- 
tive political  group,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
liberal  party  in  Great  Britain  during  the  reigns  of 
Queen  Victoria  and  Edward  VII. 

We  are  already  preparing  for  a  great  political  con- 
test, and  the  signs  are  all  favorable  to  the  return  of 
the  Republican  party  to  full  power  in  the  government 
of  the  nation  unless  it  shall  flinch  from  its  clear  duty 
and  fail  in  its  high  opportunity.  Reputation  is  an 
excellent  thing,  but  it  is  not  enough.  Record  for  great 
public  service  is  a  splendid  thing,  but  it  is  not  enough. 
The  first  voter  of  to-morrow  and  the  newly  enfran- 
chised women  voters  in  many  States  must  be  given 
something  more  than  a  share  in  the  pride  which  the 
older  Republican  feels  in  the  history  of  his  party. 
These  new  voters  are  ready  to  respond  to  an  appeal 
to  their  patriotism  and  to  their  intelligence.  They 
wish  to  have  reasons  given  for  the  faith  that  should 
be  in  them,  and  for  the  course  which  they  should  take 
in  choosing  a  political  party  with  which  and  through 
which  effectively  to  exert  the  influence  of  their  citizen- 
ship. 

In  the  approaching  contest  the  nation  faces  a  crisis 
because  the  contest  will  be  waged  over  fundamental 
principles.  This  is  not  the  first  crisis  in  the  history 
of  the  republic,  nor  is  it  the  first  time  that  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  the  Republican  party  stands  have 
been  called  upon  to  save  the  country  from  its  con- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  229 

scious  or  unconscious  enemies.  There  was  a  crisis 
under  the  old  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  it  was 
met  under  the  leadership  of  George  Washington, 
Alexander  Hamilton,  and  James  Madison,  the  latter 
being  at  that  time  an  adherent  to  the  principles  of  the 
Republican  party.  There  was  a  crisis  during  the  sec- 
ond administration  of  Washington,  when  disorder  and 
anarchy  were  abroad  in  the  land,  and  the  newly  made 
government  was  threatened  with  ruin.  Again  George 
Washington  was  the  pilot  who  guided  the  ship  of  state 
through  that  tempestuous  sea.  There  was  a  crisis 
when  the  judicial  interpretation  of  the  Constitution 
was  at  stake,  and  when  both  public  opinion  and  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had  to  be  con- 
vinced that  the  United  States  was  a  nation,  with  all 
the  powers  and  attributes  of  a  sovereign  people.  That 
crisis  was  met  by  the  clear  judicial  reasoning  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  by  the  eloquent  and  convincing 
advocacy  of  Daniel  Webster.  There  was  a  crisis 
when  the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  nation  were  chal- 
lenged and  when  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon  by  those 
who  conscientiously  believed  that  they  were  at  liberty 
to  disrupt  the  Union.  That  crisis  was  met  under  the 
leadership  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  whom  Secretary 
Stanton  so  beautifully  and  so  truly  said,  "Now  he 
belongs  to  the  ages." 

In  1920  the  American  people  are  to  face  still  another 
crisis  in  their  history,  and  they  will  meet  and  sur- 
mount it  as  they  have  those  that  have  gone  before. 
This  time  the  crisis  is  precipitated  by  the  activity  of 


230  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

elements  in  our  population  which  hold  and  teach  doc- 
trines that  sound  strange  to  the  American  ear.  This 
crisis  is  brought  about  by  those  who  have  lost  faith 
in  America,  who  no  longer  believe  in  or  who  do  not 
understand  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States; 
who  would  turn  their  backs  upon  a  republican  form 
of  government  in  order  to  set  up  in  its  place  a  system 
of  control  by  a  privileged  class,  with  a  view  to  the 
exploitation  of  all  other  groups  or  classes  in  the  com- 
munity. Such  men  frankly  proclaim  their  preference 
for  the  political  philosophy  of  a  Lenine  and  a  Trotzky 
to  that  of  a  Washington,  a  Hamilton,  a  Webster,  or  a 
Lincoln.  Once  let  the  American  people  understand 
this  issue  and  they  will  rise  in  their  might  to  over- 
whelm the  enemies  of  America,  as  the  citizens  of 
Massachusetts,  regardless  of  party  preference,  sprang 
to  the  defense  of  law  and  order  on  November  4  last. 
The  issue  is  the  preservation  of  the  American  form  of 
government,  with  its  incomparable  blessing  of  liberty 
under  law,  and  its  fundamental  principles  of  equality 
of  citizenship,  equality  of  opportunity,  and  the  right  to 
hold  and  dispose  of  one's  own  just  gains.  The  attack 
purports  to  be  directed  against  property,  but  it  is 
really  directed  against  liberty,  for  property  is  but  one 
of  the  expressions  of  liberty.  No  man  could  be  free 
who  had  not  the  right,  protected  by  law,  to  dispose  of 
his  own  goods  and  services  as  he  may  choose  and  to 
apply  his  just  gains  as  he  will,  subject  only  to  the  limi- 
tation of  every  other  man's  right  to  do  the  same  thing. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  231 

We  are  called  upon  both  to  explain  democracy  and  to 
fight  for  democracy.  We  are  called  upon  to  make  it 
clear  that  class  divisions,  class  struggles,  class  control, 
are  not  only  undemocratic  but  antidemocratic,  and 
that  the  only  end  which  they  can  possibly  achieve  is 
anarchy  and  economic  stagnation. 

How  does  it  happen  that  it  becomes  the  duty  and 
the  opportunity  of  the  Republican  party  to  defend 
and  to  explain  America  in  this  sense  ?  The  answer 
is  because  the  present  Democrat  administration  has 
trifled  with  this  great  issue,  has  given  posts  of  honor 
and  authority  to  those  who  hold  and  teach  doctrines 
in  flat  antagonism  to  the  principles  on  which  our 
government  rests,  and  has  even  commissioned  men  of 
this  type  to  carry  on  more  or  less  authoritative  nego- 
tiations with  revolutionaries  in  other  lands.  If  the 
present  administration  had,  since  March  4,  1913, 
stood  for  American  principles  of  government  and  for 
the  American  social  order  with  definiteness  and  em- 
phasis against  all  attacks,  we  might  not  now  be  faced 
by  the  serious  situation  which  confronts  us.  The 
administration's  incessant  harping  upon  a  distinction 
between  a  people  and  their  government,  and  the  in- 
sidious suggestion  that  the  governments  do  not  rep- 
resent their  several  peoples  and  should  be  either 
corrected  or  overthrown,  has  helped  to  spread  the 
seeds  of  disorder  throughout  the  world.  In  Western 
Europe  substantially  every  government  rests  upon  a 
democratic  basis.  The  responsible  spokesmen  and 
rulers  can  at  any  moment  be  changed  by  the  people 


232  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

in  accordance  with  their  several  constitutional  forms. 
It  is  a  travesty  on  the  facts  of  history  and  of  politics 
to  spread  abroad  the  notion  that  some  unusual  and 
perhaps  revolutionary  act  on  the  part  of  a  people  is 
necessary  in  order  to  bring  their  government  into  har- 
mony with  them.  There  was  of  course  ground  for 
this  suggestion  so  long  as  the  Romanoffs,  the  Haps- 
burgs,  and  the  Hohenzollerns  were  able  to  withhold 
self-government  from  hundreds  of  millions  of  human 
beings.  But  there  is  no  ground  for  it  in  respect  of 
Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Belgium, 
Holland,  or  the  Scandinavian  countries.  Each  one 
of  these  governments  rests  upon  a  democratic  basis 
and  is  immediately,  responsive  to  changing  public 
opinion. 

Moreover,  the  administration  has  permitted  the  in- 
dustrial problem  to  take  such  a  form  as  directly 
menaces  our  political  institutions.  When  in  Septem- 
ber, 1916,  the  Adamson  Law  was  placed  upon  the 
statute-book,  in  response  to  what  the  Democrat  man- 
agers believed  to  be  a  political  necessity,  a  false  step 
was  taken  that  has  never  been  wholly  retraced,  and 
whose  ill  effects  are  seen  in  what  is  taking  place  in  a 
dozen  States  to-day.  The  far  wiser  policies  that  have 
just  now  been  followed  came  too  late  to  repair  all  the 
damage  that  had  been  done. 

So  complex  is  our  present-day  economic  organiza- 
tion, and  so  interdependent  are  the  interests  of  our 
entire  citizenship,  that  unless  we  hold  fast  to  our  funda- 
mental principles  we  may  easily  do  irreparable  damage 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  233 

to  America  through  trying  to  solve  the  industrial 
problem  by  false  methods.  When  any  particular 
group  of  citizens  propose  unitedly  to  withhold  their 
co-operation  in  industry  in  order  to  gain  or  to  force 
some  political  end  or  some  change  in  public  policy, 
they  are  pointing  a  pistol  at  the  head  of  the  republic. 
A  man  or  a  group  of  men  may  of  course  withhold  co- 
operation in  industry  if  they  will,  and  frequently  they 
are  justified  in  so  doing  in  order  to  bring  about  better, 
more  healthful,  and  more  American  conditions  of  em- 
ployment. But  to  strike  against  the  people  of  the 
United  States  and  their  social  order,  against  the 
proper  protection  of  their  lives  and  their  property,  is 
revolution.  This  fact  must  be  driven  home  and  made 
so  familiar  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  United 
States  that  they  will,  in  overwhelming  majorities,  in- 
sist that  our  industrial  problem  be  met  and  solved  on 
American  lines  and  in  accordance  with  American 
principles  of  government  and  of  social  organization, 
and  not  by  the  overthrow  or  violent  modification  of 
our  government  and  our  social  order. 

From  the  time  when  Alexander  Hamilton  pointed 
out  that  the  political  independence  of  the  United 
States  would  be  quite  meaningless  without  economic 
independence,  the  party  which  is  now  the  Republican 
party  has  held  and  has  taught  that  the  productive 
forces  of  the  nation  should  be  the  object  of  govern- 
ment concern  and  encouragement.  This  was  not  in 
order  that  special  privilege  might  be  bestowed  upon 
any  individual  or  group  of  individuals,  or  that  the 


234  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

power  of  taxation  should  be  used  for  the  direct  or  in- 
direct benefit  of  a  favored  few,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
in  order  that  the  nation  as  a  whole  might  be  able  to 
sustain  itself,  to  improve  itself,  to  defend  itself.  The 
events  of  the  past  five  years  have  brought  home  to 
the  consciousness  of  every  one  the  fact  that  any  na- 
tion, however  rich  or  however  populous,  is  in  constant 
danger  if  it  cannot  command  and  control  the  essen- 
tials to  self-support  and  self-defense.  Such  nations 
as  are  not  able  for  reasons  of  climate,  of  product,  or 
of  natural  resources,  to  become  economically  inde- 
pendent, must  find  their  protection,  in  last  resort, 
through  a  society  of  nations  in  which,  as  in  a  society 
of  men,  the  strong  will  protect  the  weak  through  the 
establishment  and  enforcement  of  law.  This  Re- 
publican attitude  toward  national  self-support  and 
productive  enterprise  has  been  opposed  with  more  or 
less  consistency  by  the  Democrat  party  since  the  time 
of  Jefferson. 

The  wisdom  of  Republican  policy  in  this  respect 
has  been  convincingly  demonstrated  by  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  our  natural  resources,  by  the  active 
spirit  of  invention  and  of  industrial  and  commercial 
enterprise  that  has  been  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world,  and  by  the  steady  improvement  in  the  eco- 
nomic condition  of  the  vast  mass  of  a  rapidly  growing 
population,  due  to  the  diversification  of  industry  and 
to  the  constantly  wiser  and  fairer  distribution  of  its 
product.  The  phenomenal  increase  in  the  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  United  States  between  1900  and  1910 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  235 

was  not  due  to  accident,  but  to  carefully  considered 
and  wisely  executed  policies  during  the  presidencies  of 
McKinley  and  Roosevelt  and  Taft.  There  are  many 
and  difficult  problems  still  ahead  of  us,  but  the  Re- 
publican party  has  amply  demonstrated  that  it  pos- 
sesses the  principles,  the  ability,  the  courage,  and  the 
constructive  statesmanship  to  deal  with  them. 

The  Republican  party,  if  given  control  of  both  the 
executive  and  the  legislative  departments  of  the  gov- 
ernment at  the  elections  of  1920,  will  find  itself  con- 
fronted by  an  international  problem  of  grave  difficulty 
and  of  highest  importance.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  thing 
to  discuss  international  policies  from  the  standpoint 
of  party  principle  and  party  responsibility;  for  it  is 
most  desirable  that  in  its  international  relations  the 
nation  should  think  and  act  as  a  unit.  Unfortunately, 
however,  this  possibility  has  been  destroyed  by  the 
conduct  of  the  present  administration.  From  its  first 
dealings  with  distracted  Mexico  in  1913  down  to  the 
work  of  the  Peace  Conference  at  Versailles  in  1919, 
one  grave  blunder  has  followed  another,  until  to-day 
the  United  States  is  without  anything  that  can  truly 
be  described  as  a  foreign  policy.  Moreover,  the  ad- 
ministration's partisan  and  secretive  method  of  con- 
ducting the  negotiations  at  Paris  destroyed  the  pos- 
sibility of  united  action  at  home.  What  is  American 
policy  in  respect  to  Mexico,  in  respect  to  Japan,  in 
respect  to  China,  in  respect  to  Russia,  in  respect  to 
the  large  problems  raised  in  Europe  and  in  Asia  by 
the  victorious  ending  of  the  war  ?  What  part  do  we 


236  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

really  expect  to  play  in  the  League  of  Nations  ?  What 
responsibility  are  we  to  assume  and  what  principles 
are  we  to  endeavor  to  establish  ?  It  does  not  seem 
likely  that  any  one  of  these  questions  will  be  clearly 
and  satisfactorily  answered  before  the  term  of  the 
present  administration  comes  to  an  end.  If  so,  the 
international  problem  which  the  next  administration 
will  have  to  face  is  this:  So  to  settle  the  results  of  the 
war  as  to  insure,  so  far  as  is  humanly  possible,  that 
nothing  of  the  kind  shall  ever  take  place  again,  with- 
out sacrificing  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
or  putting  any  of  its  national  policies  in  commission. 

The  consistent  Republican  policy  through  the  ad- 
ministrations of  McKinley,  Roosevelt,  and  Taft,  un- 
der the  administration  of  the  State  Department  by 
Hay,  Root,  and  Knox,  has  been  to  endeavor  to  provide 
against  international  war  by  setting  up  a  great  tri- 
bunal, by  which  law  should  be  substituted  for  force 
in  the  settlement  of  international  disputes.  Many  of 
us  had  hoped  that  the  treaty  framed  at  Versailles 
would  have  that  provision  as  the  corner-stone  of  the 
new  structure  that  it  was  building.  We  were  bitterly 
disappointed  when  it  did  not,  and  when  we  saw  that 
instead  of  establishing  the  rule  of  law  the  treaty  largely 
relied  upon  recourse  to  political  and  diplomatic  discus- 
sion as  a  means  of  preventing  international  war.  It 
will  be  the  first  duty  of  a  Republican  administration 
to  press  for  the  establishment  of  an  International 
Court  of  Justice,  to  hear  and  decide  controversies  be- 
tween nations,  and  as  Theodore  Roosevelt  insisted  at 


TEE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  237 

Christiania  more  than  nine  years  ago,  to  give  that 
court  power  to  enforce  its  decrees.  It  must  press  also 
for  a  continuing  international  conference,  meeting  at 
stated  intervals,  to  declare  and  define  the  rules  of  in- 
ternational law  and  conduct  by  which  civilized  na- 
tions are  to  be  bound  and  in  accordance  with  which 
the  International  Court  of  Justice  would  make  its 
findings.  There  is  no  alternative  to  the  use  of  force 
save  the  rule  of  law.  Discussion  and  debate  may 
delay  the  appeal  to  force,  or  they  may  change  the  form 
of  that  appeal,  but  they  will  never  prevent  it  being 
ultimately  made.  Until  nations  are  ruled  in  their  re- 
lations to  each  other  by  law,  and  until  it  is  established 
that  a  law-breaker  among  nations  is  to  be  treated  like 
a  law-breaker  among  men,  we  shall  only  be  playing 
with  the  problem  of  preventing  the  outbreak  of  in- 
ternational war. 

The  world  is  ready,  too,  for  the  working  out  of  con- 
structive policies  based  upon  the  principle  that  there 
shall  be  no  more  exploitation  of  backward  peoples, 
or  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  lands  which  they 
inhabit.  The  more  advanced  and  more  fortunate 
peoples  must  come  to  regard  themselves  as  elder 
brothers  of  those  who  have  still  their  place  to  find  and 
to  make  in  the  world.  The  backward  peoples  should, 
through  international  co-operation,  be  taught  the  ways 
and  means  of  improving  their  own  condition,  of  profit- 
ing by  their  own  labor  and  their  own  natural  resources, 
and  of  gradually  preparing  themselves  to  play  a  posi- 
tive part  in  the  development  of  civilization  in  time 


238  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

to  come.  The  application  of  this  principle  means 
that  a  civilized  nation  cannot  permit  anarchy,  cruelty, 
rapine,  and  outrage  in  a  neighboring  part  of  the  world 
to  go  unnoticed.  We  are  our  brother's  keepers.  For 
a  civilized  nation  to  permit  a  neighbor,  rich  in  soil 
and  in  opportunity,  to  be  given  over  to  anarchy  and 
turbulence,  is  as  faithless  and  as  wicked  as  it  would 
be  for  an  individual  to  fail  to  spring  to  the  rescue  of 
his  fellow  whose  life  was  in  danger  through  no  fault  of 
his  own.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  back- 
ward peoples  should  be  aided  to  come  forward  in  the 
ranks  of  civilization.  Through  appropriate  interna- 
tional co-operation  and  by  appropriate  international 
agencies  this  can  be  accomplished  without  repeating 
any  of  the  abuses  that  have  so  frequently  attended 
colonization  and  the  exploitation  of  the  weak  by  the 
strong.  The  policy  pursued  by  Presidents  McKinley 
and  Roosevelt  and  by  Secretaries  Hay  and  Root  toward 
Cuba  and  San  Domingo  is  an  admirable  illustration 
of  how  the  Republican  party  would  work  out  the  solu- 
tion of  problems  of  this  kind. 

The  general  principles  of  a  sound  American  foreign 
policy  have  been  set  forth  by  successive  Presidents 
and  secretaries  of  state  from  the  foundation  of  the 
government.  The  path  of  safety  in  the  immediate 
future  will  lead  not  to  a  departure  from  these  tradi- 
tional policies,  but  to  new  applications  of  their  under- 
lying principles  as  new  conditions  arise  and  as  cir- 
cumstances may  demand.  It  is  not  true  that  Ameri- 
can foreign  policy  has  been  one  of  isolation  and  de- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  239 

tachment.  We  have  never  been  isolated  or  detached 
from  the  interests  of  mankind  or  from  the  struggles 
for  liberty  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  We  have 
been  preoccupied  with  our  own  domestic  problems 
and  with  our  own  internal  development,  but  never 
isolated  or  indifferent.  The  time  has  now  come  when 
these  domestic  interests  lead  directly  to  an  increasing 
amount  of  international  co-operation,  for  the  reason 
that  both  political  security  and  economic  prosperity 
depend  upon  the  preservation  of  international  peace 
and  order. 

Americans  will  tolerate  no  supergovernment  to  sup- 
plant their  own  Constitution,  whether  its  seat  be  in 
some  foreign  city  or  in  the  council-chamber  of  some 
highly  organized  economic  group,  representative  either 
of  capital  or  of  labor.  They  will  insist  upon  going  for- 
ward in  co-operation  with  other  civilized  and  liberty- 
loving  people  to  preserve  and  protect  the  peace  and 
good  order  of  the  world,  in  full  command  of  their  own 
policies  and  unhampered  by  any  engagements  which 
public  opinion  would  not  permit  the  administration 
of  the  moment  to  keep.  Americans  have  long  urged, 
and  would  beyond  question  gladly  welcome,  a  true 
society  of  nations,  but  it  must  be  a  society  of  nations 
and  not  any  attempted  international  substitute  for 
independent  and  self-governing,  co-operating  peoples. 
Given  an  International  Court  of  Justice,  given  a  body 
to  formulate  and  to  keep  plastic  the  rules  of  interna- 
tional law  and  conduct,  and  given  a  society  of  co- 
operating nations  bent  upon  preserving  peace  and 


240  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

order  throughout  the  world,  on  assisting  backward 
nations  to  advance  as  quickly  as  may  be  in  the  scale 
of  civilization,  and  on  doing  even-handed  justice  at 
home — given  all  these,  the  prospect  for  the  steadily 
increasing  happiness  and  prosperity  of  mankind  will 
be  bright  indeed.  In  that  case  we  shall  have  reas- 
serted the  controlling  proposition  that  international 
relations  must  be  ruled  by  law.  We  shall  have  done 
everything  possible  to  restore  international  confidence 
and  good-will,  and  we  shall  have  laid  the  basis  for  an 
increasingly  large  and  profitable  international  trade 
that  will  greatly  add  to  the  prosperity  of  our  people, 
as  well  as  promote  our  international  influence  and 
authority  while  assisting  nations  wrecked  and  impover- 
ished by  war  to  regain  their  strength. 

The  domestic  problems  that  confront  the  country 
are  even  more  grave  and  more  pressing  than  those 
which  relate  to  international  policy.  Partly  as  the 
result  of  the  ineptitude  of  the  present  administration, 
partly  as  the  result  of  movements  and  tendencies  long 
at  work  among  us  that  have  now  culminated,  and  partly 
as  the  result  of  the  abnormal  and  disturbed  conditions 
that  accompanied  and  followed  the  war,  there  probably 
never  has  been  a  time  when  the  American  people  were 
more  urgently  called  upon  to  set  their  own  house  in 
order. 

First  of  all,  we  must  get  back  our  usual  and  con- 
stitutional form  of  government  by  stripping  the  execu- 
tive department  of  the  extraordinary  powers  assumed 
during  the  war,  by  trying  to  restore  confidence  and 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  241 

co-operation  between  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  of  the  government,  and  by  bringing  to  an 
end  the  veritable  orgy  of  waste,  extravagance,  and  ad- 
ministrative incompetence  that  has  marked  the  course 
of  the  present  administration. 

We  must  also  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  restore 
among  our  people  a  compelling  respect  for  law,  and 
punish  with  becoming  severity  those  who  insist  upon 
resisting  or  defying  the  law,  whether  as  individuals  or 
as  mobs.  It  is  the  spirit  of  contempt  for  law  that  has 
made  possible  the  shocking  outrages  against  colored 
men  and  women  that  have  only  lately  disgraced 
Washington,  Chicago,  and  Omaha.  It  is  idle  for  the 
leaders  of  American  opinion  to  appeal  to  other  peoples 
and  their  governments  to  give  fair  and  decent  treat- 
ment to  all  those  who  are  subject  to  their  sovereignty, 
while  no  effective  steps  are  taken  to  protect  here  in 
the  United  States  the  twelve  millions  of  our  colored 
citizens,  whose  constitutional  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  are  the  same  as  those  of  every 
other  American. 

In  the  forefront  of  domestic  problems,  affecting 
and  conditioning  every  other,  is  that  which  has  to 
do  with  the  high  cost  of  living.  It  is  the  high  cost 
of  living  which  foments  dissatisfaction  and  unrest, 
and  which  throws  industry  and  commerce  into  con- 
stant confusion.  This  is  not  a  new  question.  In 
1912  the  Republican  National  Convention  pointed 
out  that  the  steadily  increasing  cost  of  living  had 
then  become  a  matter  not  only  of  national  but  of 


242  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

world-wide  concern.  The  fact  that  it  was  not  due  to 
the  tariff,  as  the  Democrat  party  charged,  was  evi- 
denced by  the  existence  of  similar  conditions  in  coun- 
tries which  had  a  tariff  system  different  from  our  own, 
as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  the  cost  of  living  had  in- 
creased even  where  rates  of  duty  had  remained  sta- 
tionary or  had  been  reduced.  At  that  time  the  Re- 
publican party  promised  its  support  to  a  scientific 
inquiry  into  the  causes  which  were  operative  both  in 
the  United  States  and  elsewhere  to  increase  the  cost  of 
living,  and  it  promised  that  when  the  exact  facts  were 
known  it  would  take  the  necessary  steps  to  remove 
any  abuses  that  might  be  found  to  exist  in  order  that 
the  cost  of  the  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  of  the  people 
should  in  no  way  be  unduly  or  artificially  increased. 
The  present  administration  has  shown  itself  wholly 
incompetent,  or  unwilling,  to  grapple  with  this  prob- 
lem, and  it  has  done  nothing  save  to  ask  for  additional 
appropriations  amounting  to  millions  of  dollars  with 
which  to  meet  the  cost  of  prosecuting  an  occasional 
profiteer.  Whatever  profiteering  exists, — and  there  is 
certainly  a  good  deal  of  it, — only  touches  the  fringe  of 
this  question. 

The  high  cost  of  living  is  now  known  to  be  the  effect 
of  greatly  expanded  credit  with  resulting  currency  in- 
flation; of  decreased  production  due  to  fewer  working 
hours,  to  constant  and  continuing  strikes,  and  to  arti- 
ficial limitations  upon  output;  of  our  truly  mediaeval 
system  of  distribution,  in  which  field  we  have  made 
almost  no  progress  for  years  past,  although  we  have 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  243 

spent  untold  brains  and  energy  upon  more  and  better 
production;  and  of  colossal  governmental  and  personal 
extravagance.  Some  of  these  causes  can  be  reached 
and  remedied  by  government  action  and  some  cannot. 
The  government  must  do  its  share  by  checking  ex- 
travagance and  stopping  waste,  by  bringing  the  cost 
of  the  government's  business  within  the  income  of 
the  year,  by  stimulating  production  in  all  possible 
ways,  and  by  lending  its  aid  in  the  study  of  improved 
methods  of  distribution,  particularly  as  related  to  all 
that  enters  into  the  nation's  food-supply.  The  people 
themselves  must  co-operate  to  increase  production  in 
their  several  occupations  and  to  assist  in  the  improve- 
ment of  distribution,  as  well  as  by  the  practice  of 
economy  and  thrift.  It  will  not  do  to  ask  the  people 
to  wait  indefinitely  until  natural  economic  forces  at 
some  distant  time  reduce  the  present  high  cost  of 
living,  nor  will  it  do  to  attempt  to  dispose  of  the 
question  by  a  few  rhetorical  phrases.  The  govern- 
ment in  its  sphere,  and  the  individual  citizen  in  his, 
must  attack  the  causes  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  and 
by  so  doing  lift  with  all  possible  speed  the  almost  in- 
tolerable burden  under  which  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  are  now  suffering. 

The  introduction  of  a  national  budget  system,  which 
thanks  to  the  initiative  of  a  Republican  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives is  now  well  under  way,  will  greatly  assist 
in  putting  the  government  upon  a  business  basis,  and 
in  enabling  the  people  to  fix  responsibility  both  for 
extravagance  and  for  excessive  and  unfair  taxation. 


244  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

It  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  both  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives and  the  Senate  will  so  amend  their  present 
rules  as  to  put  the  consideration  of  the  budget  in  the 
hands  of  a  single  committee  in  each  House,  large 
enough  to  be  representative  of  the  entire  member- 
ship and  yet  compact  enough  to  make  it  a  business 
body  upon  which  responsibility  for  a  report  upon  the 
budget  can  be  specifically  fixed. 

We  cannot  indefinitely  continue,  without  disaster, 
the  present  state  of  industrial  turmoil,  which  is  due  to 
attempts  to  improve  industrial  and  economic  condi- 
tions by  the  use  of  methods  of  force.  Industrial  war 
must,  in  the  public  interest,  go  the  way  of  international 
war,  and  by  similar  processes.  It  is  futile  to  attempt 
to  set  up  any  agency  for  the  promotion  of  industrial 
peace  in  which  what  is  called  capital,  what  is  called 
labor,  and  what  is  called  the  public  are  equally  rep- 
resented and  meet  upon  equal  terms.  Such  a  course 
simply  gives  new  strength  to  the  movement  for  a 
class  struggle  and  the  promotion  of  class  conscious- 
ness. What  we  call  capital  is  nothing  more  or  less 
than  a  group  of  men  and  women  who  hold  savings,  all 
of  whom  are  a  part  of  the  public.  What  we  call  labor 
is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  group  of  men  and  women 
who  work  for  wages,  all  of  whom  are  also  a  part  of  the 
public.  Capital  and  labor  may  face  each  other  on 
equal  terms,  but  they  cannot  be  permitted  to  face 
the  public  on  equal  terms.  The  public  is  always  and 
everywhere  their  superior  and  includes  them  both. 

Perhaps  a  practicable  method  of  advancing  indus- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  245 

trial  peace  would  be  to  establish,  by  authority  of 
Congress,  an  Industrial  Relations  Commission  before 
which  any  industrial  difference  or  dispute  might  be 
brought  at  the  instance  of  any  party  thereto  or  at  that 
of  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States.  This 
commission,  to  be  made  up  of  judicially  minded  per- 
sons sworn  to  serve  only  the  public  interest,  would  then 
examine  into  the  merits  of  such  differences  or  disputes 
as  might  be  brought  before  it,  take  testimony,  hear 
arguments,  and  reach  a  finding  with  recommendations 
for  action.  Public  opinion  may  be  trusted  to  bring 
about  compliance  with  the  findings  and  recommenda- 
tions of  such  a  commission  if  properly  constituted. 

This  is  a  reasonable  and  an  American  method  of 
dealing  with  a  question  which  is  at  the  moment  most 
acute.  The  public  cannot  tolerate  a  constant  succes- 
sion of  strikes  with  their  interruption  of  production, 
their  effect  to  increase  the  cost  of  living,  and  their 
wide-spread  suffering  and  distress.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  public  cannot  compel  any  man  to  work  against 
his  will.  Therefore  dispassionate,  impartial  inquiry 
into  the  facts  of  any  given  industrial  difference  or  dis- 
pute and  a  reliance  upon  public  opinion  to  deal  fairly 
with  the  disputants  when  all  the  facts  are  known, 
appear  to  offer  the  only  practicable  way  out  of  what 
at  the  moment  seems  to  be  an  insoluble  difficulty. 
The  strike  is  an  instrument  of  force  and  will  one  day 
be  looked  upon  as  a  relic  of  mediaevalism  in  thought  and 
in  action.  Yet  it  cannot  be  escaped  until  the  public 
is  put  in  possession  of  the  precise  facts  that  precede 


246  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

and  accompany  a  given  strike,  and  is  thus  enabled  to 
bring  its  all-powerful  pressure  to  bear  in  order  to 
secure  a  just  settlement. 

In  the  next  place,  a  way  must  quickly  be  found  to 
apply  the  lessons  that  have  been  learned  during  the 
past  thirty  years,  and  especially  those  taught  by  the 
experiences  of  the  war,  as  to  what  is  wise  and  what  is 
unwise  in  the  relationship  between  government  and 
the  business  activities  of  the  people.  The  attempt  to 
force  competition  by  law  and  to  prevent  co-operation, 
when  undertaken  with  a  view  to  increasing  production, 
reducing  costs,  and  developing  foreign  trade,  has  failed. 
As  we  now  look  back  we  can  see  that  this  attempt 
was  bound  to  fail,  for  it  ran  counter  to  natural  and 
healthy  economic  tendencies.  This  movement  was 
supported  by  the  people  in  good  faith  as  a  means  of 
bringing  to  an  end  intolerable  abuses  that  affected  not 
only  the  business  but  the  politics  of  the  nation.  In 
striking  at  the  abuses,  however,  we  also  struck  at  the 
foundations  of  our  industrial  prosperity  and  of  our 
national  economic  development.  Instead  of  longer 
preventing  the  organization  of  large  business  units 
we  should  now  provide  a  way  by  which  they  may  be 
legally  organized,  and  kept  under  national  supervision 
and  control,  in  order  that  the  good  effects  of  co- 
operation may  not  bring  in  their  train  any  of  the  ill 
effects  of  monopoly  and  privilege.  Public  opinion  is 
now  ready  for  this  forward  step.  When  taken  it  will 
render  immense  service  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  and  to  their  abundant  and  continued  prosperity. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  247 

The  unhappy  experiences  of  the  past  three  years 
have  practically  extinguished  the  clamor  for  the  gov- 
ernment ownership  and  operation  of  the  railways.  A 
Republican  Congress  is  at  this  moment  studying  with 
patient  care  the  terms  of  a  proposed  act  by  which  the 
railways,  when  returned  to  the  control  of  their  several 
owners,  will  be  related  to  each  other  and  to  government 
supervision  and  control  in  wiser  and  more  satisfactory 
ways  than  those  hitherto  prevailing.  These  great 
arteries  of  travel  and  of  traffic  are  in  the  highest  sense 
public  utilities.  A  forward-looking  public  policy  will 
include  in  its  scope  the  study  and  development  of  all 
possible  means  of  internal  transportation,  not  only 
the  railways  and  canals,  but  the  electric  railway  sys- 
tems, the  highways,  and  also  traffic  by  air.  Thorough- 
going study  of  this  entire  problem  might  well  prove 
that  it  has  direct  bearing  upon  the  question  of  better 
and  cheaper  distribution  and  so  upon  the  cost  of  living 
itself.  In  this  way  we  might  well  be  able  to  aid  the 
farmer  in  reaching  his  market  and  in  selling  his  product, 
and  we  might  also  be  able  to  aid  the  dwellers  in  the 
great  cities  by  reducing  the  cost  of  their  food-supply. 

It  is  important  for  members  of  a  great  political  party 
to  remember  that  it  is  constantly  on  trial.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  the  unsatisfactory  history  and  policies 
of  the  Democrat  party,  it  is  a  watchful  and  doughty 
opponent,  and  it  can  quickly  bring  to  its  side  large 
bodies  of  unattached  voters  if  the  Republican  party 
wavers  in  patriotism  or  is  associated  with  unworthy 


248  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

acts.  In  the  several  state  legislatures  as  well  as  in 
county  and  in  municipal  government  it  is  imperative, 
in  the  national  interest,  that  those  who  bear  the  name 
of  the  Republican  party  should  remember  the  measure 
of  responsibility  which  rests  upon  them.  An  unfortu- 
nate attitude  on  the  part  of  a  Republican  majority  in  a 
state  legislature  or  the  support  by  such  a  majority  of 
a  policy  of  obscurantism,  and  blind  opposition  to  some 
local  measure  that  is  clearly  in  the  public  interest, 
may  easily  alienate  enough  support  to  affect  the 
presidential,  senatorial,  and  congressional  elections. 

Nor  will  it  do  to  allow  overconfidence  to  weaken  our 
efforts  or  to  lower  our  high  principles.  It  is  true  that 
the  congressional  elections  of  1918  and  every  election 
held  since  mark  a  strong  tendency  to  turn  toward  the 
Republican  party  for  relief.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, however,  that  it  is  a  fixed  habit  in  American 
politics  to  vote  against  some  party  or  some  candidate 
rather  than  to  vote  for  their  opponents.  The  people 
just  now  are  everywhere  voting  against  the  Democrat 
party  and  the  representatives  of  the  policies  of  the 
present  administration.  The  Republican  party  and  its 
candidates  are  the  necessary  beneficiaries. 

If,  however,  we  are  permanently  to  attract  and  hold 
the  great  body  of  voters  who  have  not  hitherto  been 
with  us,  or  whose  support  has  been  intermittent  or 
reluctant,  we  must  make  clear  to  them  not  only  that 
our  principles  are  sound  and  our  patriotism  unwaver- 
ing, but  that  we  propose  to  go  forward  to  meet  every 
new  public  question  as  it  arises  in  a  spirit  of  construe- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  249 

tive  progress  with  open-mindedness,  with  broad  human 
sympathy,  and  with  a  determination  to  do  exact  and 
even-handed  justice  to  every  individual  among  our 
hundred  millions  and  more. 

I  said  a  few  moments  ago  that  the  reputation  of  an 
individual  or  a  party  is  a  great  and  splendid  thing, 
but  that  it  is  not  everything.  I  say  now  that  the  repu- 
tation of  an  individual  or  a  party  is  the  very  best 
ground  for  confidence  that  what  is  to  be  done  to- 
morrow will  be  accomplished  in  the  spirit  of  the  achieve- 
ment of  yesterday.  That  is  why  I  like  to  recall  the 
splendid  acts,  the  stupendous  achievements,  that 
America  has  done  and  made  under  the  leadership  of 
its  constructive  forces,  and  the  great  names  that  are 
forever  associated  with  those  acts  and  achievements. 
Take  the  names  that  have  interwoven  their  teachings 
and  their  lives  with  the  name  and  the  fame  of  our 
republic  through  the  medium  of  the  principles  of  the 
Republican  party:  strike  them  out  and  what  becomes 
of  American  history  ?  Take  away  Washington  and 
your  whole  fabric  falls.  Take  away  Hamilton  and  your 
whole  philosophy  of  government  disappears.  Take 
away  Jay  and  the  foundations  of  your  foreign  policy 
are  swept  away.  Take  away  Marshall  and  the  epoch- 
making  judicial  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  has 
gone.  Take  away  Webster  and  you  have  stilled  the 
great  organ-voice  that  moved  this  nation  to  understand 
itself  as  one.  Take  away  Henry  Clay  and  there  goes 
the  great  spirit  of  the  West,  young  and  eagerly  facing 
to-morrow.  Take  away  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the 


2$o  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

most  pathetic  and  appealing  figure  in  all  modern  his- 
tory goes  from  its  pages.  Take  away  Theodore  Roose- 
velt and  you  destroy  a  name  and  a  life  that  signify 
and  represent  the  youth  and  vitality,  he  open- 
mindedness  and  the  vigor  of  America,  young  and  old. 
Oh,  my  friends,  you  cannot  take  out  of  the  story  of 
America  these  names.  You  cannot  take  out  of  the 
story  of  America  these  achievements.  You  cannot 
take  out  of  the  story  of  America  this  record.  All  that 
we  can  do  is,  so  far  as  lies  within  the  capacity  of  each 
one  of  us,  to  strive  to  be  worthy  of  their  example,  of 
their  counsel,  and  of  our  opportunity. 


XIV 
MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Constitutional  Convention 

of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  the  Assembly  Chamber, 

Albany,  New  York,  June  15,  1915 


MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 

This  day  seven  hundred  years  ago  that  monarch 
whom  John  Richard  Green  has  called  the  ablest  and 
most  ruthless  of  the  Angevins  rode  out  from  Windsor 
Castle,  followed  by  a  group  of  retainers  and  dependents, 
to  meet  the  assembled  barons  of  England.  They 
gathered  with  their  knights  some  two  thousand 
strong,  with  Robert  Fitzwalter  as  marshal  at  their 
head.  The  place  chosen  for  the  meeting  was  within 
easy  eye-shot  of  Windsor  Castle  and  had  been  for 
generations  a  favorite  meeting-place  of  kings  in  coun- 
cil. Runnymede — which  is  Running-Mede,  a  meadow 
of  council — was  in  1215  already  a  memorable  spot. 
Here  under  an  ancient  and  venerated  oak,  whose 
boughs  and  branches  had  looked  down  upon  the  cere- 
monies of  Druids,  at  a  spot  where  the  valley  of  the 
Thames  widens  out  to  tempt  the  traveller's  eye  with 
its  quiet  beauty,  the  Saxon  kings  had  been  wont  to 
gather  their  people  about  them  to  discuss  questions 
of  more  than  usual  importance.  One  likes  to  think 
that  the  assembly  of  wise  men,  the  Witenagemot — the 
elder  statesmen  of  that  day — had  more  than  once 
gathered  at  Runnymede  under  its  spreading  oak. 
There  perhaps  an  Alfred,  an  Athelstan,  or  an  Edgar 
had  sat  in  royal  state  to  take  counsel  for  the  people 
of  Saxon  England. 


254  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

The  meeting,  which  began  on  June  15,  1215,  and 
which  extended  over  four  days  of  anxious  counsel  and 
debate,  was  no  ordinary  gathering.  Feelings,  hopes, 
ambitions  that  had  long  been  forming;  tendencies  of 
whose  end  and  significance  those  who  represented  and 
voiced  them  were  but  dimly  conscious;  aspirations  that 
lie  deep  in  the  heart  of  man  from  the  beginning  of 
time,  but  come  to  the  surface  only  with  the  passing  of 
long  ages  of  years,  were  all  struggling  for  expression. 
The  turbulence  of  a  century  and  a  half  had  left  its 
mark  everywhere.  The  invading  Norman  with  his 
disciplined  troops  and  vigorous  administrative  skill 
had  overthrown  the  Saxon  kings  and  mounted  the 
throne  of  England  in  their  stead.  Meanwhile  for  five 
generations  the  new  Norman  and  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
nationalities  had  been  gradually  welding  themselves 
into  a  new  nation  in  which  the  ancient  Saxon  customs 
and  traditions  were  to  come  once  more  to  the  post  of 
honor  and  to  share  the  rule.  The  administrative,  the 
financial,  and  the  judicial  reforms  of  William  the  Con- 
queror and  of  the  two  Henrys  had  provided  the  skel- 
eton for  a  nation's  government;  while  the  inter- 
mingling of  the  two  bloods,  the  two  temperaments, 
and  the  two  traditions  was  providing  the  body  for  a 
nation.  The  Crusades  had  stirred  the  imagination  of 
men,  and  had  lifted  them  up  out  of  absorption  in  their 
merely  local  and  personal  concerns.  They  had  also 
greatly  stimulated  trade  and  commerce.  As  a  result, 
the  towns  were  taking  on  new  importance  and  were 
growing  in  size.  There  was  stirring  everywhere,  and 


MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915  255 

it  was  no  longer  likely  that  the  people  of  England 
would  rest  content  with  the  rule  of  even  so  popular  a 
king  as  Richard  the  Lion-hearted,  who  during  more 
than  ten  years  of  nominal  reign  could  find  but  two 
opportunities  to  set  foot  on  his  island  realm.  Nor 
was  it  in  the  least  likely  that  his  brother  John  could 
interpret  and  lead  and  satisfy  the  new  ambitions  and 
the  new  hopes  which  felt  their  opportunity  and  their 
security  to  lie  in  the  preservation  of  those  ancient 
Anglo-Saxon  liberties  that  had  been  granted  by  no 
man,  but  that  had  been  taken  for  granted  at  the  very 
beginning  of  their  history  by  a  people  intended  to  be 
free. 

The  English-speaking  race  was  born  free.  It  never 
had  to  extort  freedom  from  a  tyrant,  although  it  has 
time  and  again  been  faced  by  the  necessity  of  keeping 
a  tyrant  from  invading  its  freedom.  Such  a  tyrant 
was  King  John.  Here  is  the  pen-picture  of  his  char- 
acter as  drawn  by  Bishop  Stubbs:  "He  was  the  very 
worst  of  all  our  kings:  a  man  whom  no  oaths  could 
bind,  no  pressure  of  conscience,  no  consideration  of 
policy  restrain  from  evil;  to  his  people  a  hated  tyrant. 
Polluted  with  every  crime  that  could  disgrace  a  man, 
false  to  every  obligation  that  should  bind  a  king,  he 
had  lost  half  his  inheritance  by  sloth,  and  ruined  and 
desolated  the  rest.  Not  devoid  of  natural  ability, 
craft,  or  energy,  with  his  full  share  of  the  personal 
valor  and  accomplishments  of  his  house,  he  yet  failed 
in  every  design  he  undertook,  and  had  to  bear  humilia- 
tions which,  although  not  without  parallel,  never  fell 


256  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

on  one  who  deserved  them  more  thoroughly  or  received 
less  sympathy  under  them.  In  the  whole  view  there 
is  no  redeeming  trait;  John  seems  as  incapable  of 
receiving  a  good  impression  as  of  carrying  into  effect 
a  wise  resolution."  1  This  was  the  sort  of  man  who 
had  during  his  more  than  fifteen  years  of  reign  been 
in  constant  trouble  and  serious  conflict.  His  cruelty 
and  treachery,  manifested  in  the  murder  of  his  nephew, 
Arthur,  had  forfeited  his  French  fiefs  and  had  led  to 
the  separation  of  Normandy  from  England.  He  had 
quarrelled  with  the  church  and  with  the  Pope  himself, 
and  then  brought  the  quarrel  to  an  end  with  a  sub- 
mission which  was  as  humiliating  as  the  quarrel  itself 
was  reckless.  For  years  he  had  been  at  odds  with  the 
barons  and  for  no  small  part  of  the  time  at  war  with 
them.  His  greed  and  avarice,  his  selfishness  and 
cruelty,  his  arbitrariness  and  lusts  had  led  him  to  in- 
vade the  ancient  Anglo-Saxon  liberties  at  every  turn. 
The  time  had  come  when  the  feudal  lords  must  make 
common  cause  with  the  merchants  and  dwellers  in 
towns  and  with  the  freeholding  tenants  in  order  to  put 
a  curb  upon  the  despotism  of  the  King.  Historians  dif- 
fer as  to  whether,  in  extorting  Magna  Carta  at  Runny- 
mede,  the  barons  were  acting  only  for  their  own  class 
and  were  gaining  privileges,  or  whether  they  were  acting 
for  the  people  of  England  and  were  establishing  rights. 
Whatever  they  themselves  may  have  thought  they 
were  doing,  the  fact  is  that  they  did  act  for  the  people 
of  England;  and  it  is  the  people  of  England  as  well 

1  Constitutional  History  of  England  (Oxford,  1887),  II,  17. 


MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915  257 

as  the  people  of  the  great  independent  and  colonial 
offshoots  of  the  parent  stock  who  are  the  beneficiaries 
of  the  document  to  which  on  that  memorable  day 
King  John  and  his  barons  put  their  hands,  and  he  his 
royal  seal. 

It  is  to  a  contemporary  French  scholar,  M.  Bemont, 
that  we  owe  the  simplest  and  most  accurate  descrip- 
tion of  what  Magna  Carta  is.  Magna  Carta,  he  tells 
us,1  is  the  act  by  which  King  John  of  England  in  the 
seventeenth  year  of  his  reign  conceded  and  solemnly 
confirmed  on  June  15,  1215,  the  liberties  of  the  English 
people.  Magna  Carta  reproduced  with  much  more 
fulness  of  detail  the  Charter  of  Liberties  of  Henry  I, 
which  in  turn  revived  those  ancient  customs  of  the 
people  and  recognized  the  lawful  freedom  of  the  na- 
tion as  these  had  been  symbolized  by  the  laws  of 
Edward  the  Confessor.  In  this  way  Magna  Carta 
made  formal  legal  connection  between  the  institutions 
of  Anglo-Norman  England  and  those  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  England  of  the  days  before  the  Conquest. 
King  John  was  not  a  man  to  take  so  momentous  a  step 
willingly.  It  is,  therefore,  a  matter  of  just  surprise, 
even  after  making  allowance  for  all  the  known  atten- 
dant circumstances,  that  the  demands  of  the  barons 
were  granted  so  speedily,  and  that  within  four  days 
Magna  Carta  was  perfected  and  enough  copies  made 
to  place  one  in  every  diocese  in  England.  The  ex- 
planation is  offered  by  Edmund  Burke,  who  shrewdly 
says  of  John  that  "without  questioning  in  any  part  the 

1  Charles  des  libertes  An%laises  (Paris,  1892),  VII. 


258  MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 

terms  of  a  treaty  which  he  intended  to  observe  in  none, 
he  agreed  to  everything  the  barons  thought  fit  to  ask, 
hoping  that  the  exorbitancy  of  their  demands  would 
justify  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  breach  of  his 
promises."  1  As  a  matter  of  fact,  John  did  not  keep 
his  pledges  made  in  Magna  Carta  and  never  intended 
to  do  so.  The  moment  the  Charter  was  granted, 
those  who  had  united  to  obtain  it  fell  into  conflicting 
groups,  and  some  even  took  the  side  of  the  King. 
For  two  months  following  the  granting  of  the  Charter 
various  steps  were  taken  that  looked  toward  peace 
and  reconciliation  between  the  King,  the  barons,  and 
the  people.  August  16  was  fixed  as  the  date  when  the 
reconciliation  was  to  be  complete.  The  day  came, 
but  the  King  failed  to  appear  to  meet  the  bishops  and 
the  barons,  he  insisting  that  he  dared  not  trust  himself 
within  reach  of  their  armed  forces.  The  barons  on 
their  side  claimed  that  the  King  had  been  false  to  his 
promises,  and  under  the  terms  of  the  Charter  itself, 
they  declared  war  upon  him.  Pope  Innocent  III 
formally  annulled  the  Charter  and  excommunicated 
the  King's  enemies  and  all  disturbers  of  the  peace. 
While  chaos  reigned  and  the  future  seemed  trembling 
in  the  balance,  the  struggle  was  brought  to  an  end 
by  the  death  of  John  one  year  and  four  months  after 
Magna  Carta  had  been  signed.  A  child  succeeded 
to  the  throne,  and  the  wise  regents  reissued  the  Great 
Charter  with  various  changes,  and  stated  that  no  per- 
manent infraction  of  its  provisions  was  in  contempla- 

1  Abridgment  of  British  History,  in  Works  (Boston,  1884),  VII,  460. 


MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915  259 

tion.  It  was  in  this  way  that  Magna  Carta  took  its 
place  in  the  statutes  of  the  realm.  Its  annulment  by 
Pope  Innocent  III  within  two  months  after  its  execu- 
tion, with  the  resulting  release  of  King  John  from  the 
obligations  of  his  oath,  has  been  forgotten  and  is  now 
a  curious  bit  of  mediaeval  history.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  charter  of  Henry  III,  confirmed  on  February  n, 
1225,  when  the  young  King  was  pronounced  to  be  of 
age,  establishes  definitively  and  for  all  time  the  text 
of  Magna  Carta  as  this  now  exists  in  substantive  law. 
It  was  the  text  of  this  Charter  of  1225  that  was  con- 
firmed, after  the  establishment  of  Parliament,  by 
Edward  I  in  1297  as  the  common  law  and  which,  after 
that  day,  takes  its  place  at  the  head  of  the  statutes 
of  the  realm  preceding  the  Provisions  of  Merton. 

The  traditional  conception  of  Magna  Carta  and  its 
place  in  the  history  of  English-speaking  peoples  have 
been  stoutly  challenged  as  a  result  of  the  studies  and 
researches  of  the  past  generation.  The  statement 
of  Stubbs  that  "the  great  charter  is  the  first  great 
public  act  of  the  nation,  after  it  has  realized  its  own 
identity:  the  consummation  of  the  work  for  which 
unconsciously  kings,  prelates,  and  lawyers  have  been 
laboring  for  a  century"  1  remains  substantially  true, 
however,  despite  the  ingenious  interpretations  of  its 
provisions  offered  by  M.  Petit-Dutaillis2  and  the  de- 
structive criticisms  of  Mr.  Edward  Jenks,3  who  regards 

1  Constitutional  History  of  England  (Oxford,  1887),  I,  571. 
1  Studies   and   Notes   supplementary   to   Stubbs'   Constitutional  History 
(Manchester,  1908),  pp.  127-145. 
3  See  "The  Myth  of  Magna  Charta,"  Independent  Review,  IV,  pp.  260-273. 


260  MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 

any  such  view  of  Magna  Carta  as  imposed  upon  his- 
tory and  historians  by  the  "ingenious  but  unsound 
historical  doctrines  "  of  Coke. 

A  most  competent  American  historian  has  recently 
pointed  out  that  it  behooves  us  to  be  modest  in  our 
rejoicings  over  the  discoveries  that  reverse  long- 
cherished  beliefs.1  We  must  remember  that  these 
reversals  cannot  be  made  retroactive  so  as  to  affect 
the  thoughts  and  deeds  of  the  generations  who  knew 
not  the  reality  as  we  now  perceive  it,  but  who  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  their  own  interpretations. 
We  must  remember,  in  short,  that  for  very  much  of 
history  there  is  more  importance  in  the  ancient  error, 
if  it  be  error,  than  in  the  new-found  truth,  if  it  be 
truth,  for  it  was  the  ancient  error  that  moulded  the 
beliefs  and  directed  the  conduct  of  men.  Whether 
Magna  Carta  was  a  treaty  between  a  feudal  king  and 
his  barons,  or  a  statute  promulgated  by  the  king  with 
the  assent  and  approval  of  his  barons,  or  merely  a 
royal  declaration  like  the  Charters  of  Liberties  of 
Henry  I  and  Henry  II  which  preceded  it,  or  an  act 
declaring  and  amending  the  law  in  a  great  number  of 
particulars,  or  an  act  for  the  amending  of  the  law  of 
real  property  and  for  the  advancement  of  justice, 
makes  little  difference  and  is  now  a  question  for  the 
curious  only.  The  important  fact  is  that  it  placed 
the  king  below  the  law,  and  that  it  bound  him  not  so 
much  to  the  granting  of  new  liberties  and  privileges  as 

1  Dunning,  "Truth  in  History,"  in  American  Historical  Review,  January, 
1914,  pp.  217-229. 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  261 

to  the  confirmation  of  those  older  liberties  and  priv- 
ileges which  he  had  flaunted  and  violated.  It  did 
this  by  laying  legal  limitations  on  the  feudal  military 
power,  principally  in  respect  to  matters  of  finance; 
by  laying  legal  limitations  on  the  judicial  power;  by 
laying  legal  limitations  on  the  financial  power  or  the 
power  to  tax;  and  by  providing  legal  sanction  for 
the  liberties  assured  the  people  and  for  the  assurances 
themselves. 

The  Charter  was  followed  or  accompanied  by  As- 
sizes, Assizes  by  Provisions,  Provisions  by  Statutes. 
Still  later  it  became  the  single  rule  that  the  king, 
lords,  and  commons  must  concur  in  the  enactment  of 
a  statute,  and  that  a  rule  laid  down  with  their  con- 
currence was  a  statute.  Blackstone  is  certainly  justi- 
fied in  saying  that  Magna  Carta  is  the  earliest  of  those 
texts  whose  very  words  are  law.  From  that  time  to 
this  the  methods  of  enacting  law  and  the  succession 
of  great  exponents  and  expounders  of  the  law  are 
established  and  well  known :  Glanvill  in  the  twelfth 
century  and  Bracton  in  the  thirteenth  were  followed  by 
Littleton  in  the  fifteenth,  by  Coke  in  the  seventeenth, 
by  Blackstone  in  the  eighteenth,  and  by  Kent,  Chan- 
cellor of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Burke  has  defined  slavery  as  living  under  will,  not 
under  law.  Magna  Carta  was  a  bold  and  successful 
attempt  to  substitute  law  for  will  in  a  number  of  par- 
ticulars that  were  vitally  important  to  the  men  of  that 
day  and  generation.  It  is  idle  to  say,  as  some  have 


262  MAGNA  CARTA, 

said,  that  the  barons  had  no  conception  of  what  was 
meant  by  law.  It  may  be  true  that  the  barons  did 
not  know  or  fully  realize  what  they  were  moving  toward, 
but  they  had  a  very  clear  and  definite  idea  of  what 
they  were  trying  to  get  away  from;  and  that  was 
none  other  than  the  absolute  and  arbitrary  royal  will. 
As  a  substitute  for  the  royal  will,  they  insisted  upon 
the  establishment  of  certain  rules,  and  these  rules 
were  in  effect  law.  Professor  Gneist  is  quite  right  in 
saying  that  through  Magna  Carta  English  history 
irrevocably  took  the  direction  of  securing  constitutional 
liberty  by  administrative  law.1  He  quotes  with  ap- 
proval Hallam's  emphatic  words:  "The  Magna  Carta 
is  still  the  keystone  of  English  liberty.  All  that  has 
since  been  obtained  is  little  more  than  a  confirmation 
or  commentary;  and  if  every  subsequent  law  were  to 
be  swept  away,  there  would  remain  the  bold  features 
that  distinguish  a  free  from  a  despotic  monarchy." 
So  great  was  the  importance  attached  to  the  Magna 
Carta  by  the  English  people  that  before  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages  its  confirmation  had  been  thirty- 
eight  times  demanded  and  granted. 

The  Charter  itself  is  a  document  written  on  parch- 
ment io^i  inches  broad  and  2i/4  inches  in  length, 
including  the  fold  for  receiving  the  label.  To  this 
label,  which  is  also  of  parchment,  is  appended  the  great 
seal  of  King  John.  A  sufficient  number  of  originals 
was  made  to  deposit  one  in  every  county,  or  at  least 
one  in  every  diocese.  So,  doubtless,  it  happens  that 

1  History  of  the  English  Constitution  (New  York,  1886),  I,  311. 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  263 

of  the  four  original  copies  still  remaining,  one  is  pre- 
served in  the  library  of  the  cathedral  at  Lincoln,  and 
another  in  the  library  of  the  cathedral  at  Salisbury. 
The  remaining  two  original  copies  are  to  be  found  in 
the  Cotton  Collection  at  the  British  Museum.  The 
Charter,  as  originally  written  by  its  framers,  was  with- 
out division  into  chapters  or  paragraphs,  but  as  it 
deals  with  sixty-three  separate  topics,  editors  and 
commentators  have  divided  it  into  sixty-three  chap- 
ters. Of  these,  by  far  the  major  portion  relate  to 
matters  which  were  of  grave  moment  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  but  which  have  no  significance  whatever  for 
the  twentieth.  The  importance  of  Magna  Carta  in 
the  constitutional  history  of  the  English-speaking 
race  depends  not  so  much  upon  its  actual  contents 
as  upon  the  interpretation  which  subsequent  genera- 
tions put  upon  the  document  itself  and  upon  the  fact 
of  its  existence.  Magna  Carta  could  not  be  used,  as 
can  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  a  rule 
for  the  organization  and  conduct  of  a  definite  govern- 
ment; it  establishes  no  government,  but  deals  with 
habits  and  customs  that  were  anciently  known  as 
liberties  and  assures  them  "to  the  freemen  of  England 
and  their  heirs  forever." 

Of  the  sixty-three  topics  dealt  with  by  the  Charter, 
fourteen  relate  to  matters  merely  formal  or  temporary 
in  character,  or  deal  with  the  execution  of  the  agree- 
ment. Of  those  that  remain,  twenty-four  are  purely 
feudal  and  aim  to  protect  the  barons  against  abuses 
by  the  king,  their  overlord;  two  concern  only  the  clergy 


264  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

and  the  church;  ten  deal  with  the  organization  and 
administration  of  the  royal  justice,  a  matter  of  grave 
importance  in  the  thirteenth  century;  while  the  re- 
mainder have  to  do  with  the  dwellers  in  towns  and  vil- 
lages, including  the  city  of  London,  and  with  merchants 
and  their  privileges. 

The  student  of  historical  jurisprudence  whose  mind 
is  fixed  largely  on  technical  distinctions  may  con- 
tinue to  insist  that  it  is  quite  false  to  claim  that  Magna 
Carta  contributed  to  constitutional  progress.  The 
student  and  interpreter  of  history  with  broader  view 
and  with  his  eye  fixed  on  the  actions  and  beliefs  of 
men  will  find  himself  accepting  the  opinion  of  Sir 
Frederick  Pollock  and  Professor  Maitland  that  "with 
all  its  faults,  this  document  becomes,  and  rightly  be- 
comes, a  sacred  text,  the  nearest  approach  to  an  irre- 
pealable  fundamental  statute  that  England  has  ever 
had.  .  .  .  For,  in  brief,  it  means  this,  that  the  king 
is  and  shall  be  below  the  law."  1  Through  guaranteeing 
the  ancient  customs  of  the  English  people;  through 
protecting  merchants  against  arbitrary  taxes  and 
harsh  measures;  through  limiting  the  royal  power  to 
tax,  and  through  providing  that  no  free  man  shall 
be  taken  or  imprisoned,  disseized,  or  outlawed,  or 
exiled,  or  in  any  wise  destroyed  save  by  the  lawful 
judgment  of  his  peers  or  the  law  of  the  land  (which 
last  provision  is  reproduced  in  almost  identical  lan- 
guage in  Article  I  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
New  York),  the  Great  Charter  really  did  lay  the 

1  History  of  English  Law  (Cambridge,  1895),  I,  952. 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  265 

foundation  of  modern  English  and  American  liberty. 
No  doubt  this  was  an  accidental  and  unforeseen 
effect  of  the  contests  between  kings,  barons,  and  clergy, 
but  the  tendency  toward  liberty  was  too  strong  to 
hold  the  rights  granted  and  defined  behind  the  barriers 
of  any  class.  Voltaire,1  following  Bolingbroke,  edu- 
cated the  continent  of  Europe  to  believe  that  in  point 
of  liberty  the  condition  of  the  people  was  much  im- 
proved by  Magna  Carta;  and  so,  in  truth,  it  was. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  geology  of  politics.  The 
political  thoughts  and  acts  of  men  lie  in  strata  and  in 
layers  as  do  the  various  and  divers  rocks  that  make 
up  the  crust  of  the  earth.  Each  one  of  these  strata 
and  layers  carries  in  its  structure  the  fossil  records 
of  the  political  ideas  and  the  political  life  which  then 
moved  to  and  fro  in  the  world.  By  studying  these 
fossil  records  we  may  learn  how  political  structures  and 
functions  that  are  familiar  to  us  had  their  origin; 
how  political  structures  and  functions  that  were  familiar 
in  an  older  day  and  generation  have  passed  away  or 
have  been  transformed  and  adapted  to  other  and  newer 
needs  and  conditions,  and  what  the  relationship  is 
that  binds  the  political  and  social  life  of  to-day  to  those 
far-off  beginnings  which  we  so  attentively  note  and 
so  gladly  celebrate.  As  the  student  of  geology  must 
trace  by  patient  steps  the  passage  of  one  form  of  earth's 
structure  and  the  life  that  accompanied  it  into  another, 
so  the  student  of  politics  must  bring  to  bear  all  the 
resources  of  historical  knowledge  and  of  critical  skill 

1  Lfttres  philosophigues  sur  Its  Anglais  (Paris,  1909),  I,  101-107. 


266  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

in  order  to  be  able  to  follow  down  from  its  ancient 
sources  the  stream  of  modern  political  tendency  and 
action.  The  appearance  among  men,  and  the  evolu- 
tion, of  those  forms  of  political  organization  that  have 
marked  the  age-long  struggle  for  liberty  and  for  jus- 
tice are  fit  subject-matter  for  the  learning  of  an  Aris- 
totle, for  the  literary  skill  of  a  Plato,  for  the  stirring 
eloquence  of  a  Burke  or  a  Webster,  and  for  the  master- 
ful power  of  exposition  and  persuasion  of  a  Hamilton. 
Nothing  in  all  the  recorded  passage  of  time  so  stirs 
the  modern  man  as  the  story  of  the  groping  efforts  to 
establish  liberty  and  justice,  to  develop  nationality, 
to  open  the  way  to  opportunity,  and  to  crown  personal 
effort  with  personal  reward.  On  his  way  to  the  guillo- 
tine, Danton,  the  great  French  revolutionary,  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  that  if  he  were  able  to  live  his  life 
over  again  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
government  of  men.  But  where  else,  save  in  dealing 
with  the  government  of  men,  in  studying  it,  in  pro- 
moting it,  in  taking  part  in  it,  is  to  be  found  higher 
and  finer  exercise  for  the  best  faculties  of  man  ?  The 
individual,  taken  by  himself,  cannot  develop  institu- 
tions. His  power  and  his  skill  must  pass  with  his 
passing,  and  if  he  is  to  enforce  his  personality  and  his 
thought  upon  his  fellows  he  must  do  so  either  through 
political  institutions  or  through  that  barbaric  struggle 
in  which  might  makes  right.  True  politics  is  the 
enemy  of  war,  whether  between  individuals  or  be- 
tween nations.  It  is  the  aim  of  true  politics  so  to 
establish  the  foundations  of  justice  and  so  to  lay 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  267 

open  the  road  to  liberty  that  man  may  build  upon 
the  one  and  set  his  feet  upon  the  other  with  the  assur- 
ance that  his  personal  effort  will  not  be  in  vain  and 
that  he  will  be  rewarded  with  the  product  of  his  own 
successful  activity. 

The  individual  man,  therefore,  must  live  as  a  mem- 
ber of  a  group,  a  family,  a  tribe,  a  society,  a  nation. 
In  these  he  must  act  and  interact  with  others  and  so 
co-operate  with  them  that  by  joint  and  mutually 
helpful  effort  they  may  bring  into  existence  habits 
and  ways  of  doing  things  that  must  be  done  for  the 
common  weal,  and  establish  rules  and  laws  for  the 
doing  of  these  things.  These  habits  and  ways  of 
doing  things  and  the  laws  and  rules  for  their  con- 
duct are  institutions — social  institutions,  political  in- 
stitutions, religious  institutions.  In  this  way  arise 
the  family,  the  state,  the  church,  private  property, 
freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  assembly,  representative 
government,  and  the  manifold  structures  which  the 
foundations  deep-laid  in  these  institutions  are  suited 
to  bear. 

It  is  easy  for  men  of  our  day,  and  particularly  for 
Americans,  to  understand  all  this.  For  two  hun- 
dred years  this  process  has  been  going  on  before  the 
eyes  of  ourselves,  our  fathers,  and  our  fathers'  fathers; 
but  neither  King  John  nor  the  opposing  barons  could 
possibly  have  understood  the  meaning  of  much  of  the 
language  that  we  now  use  so  familiarly.  Yet  across 
this  great  gap  of  time,  filled  with  achievements  and 
events  that  appall  the  imagination  by  their  manifold- 


268  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

ness  and  their  importance,  we  can  trace  the  chain 
which  binds  Magna  Carta  to  the  work  of  this  Conven- 
tion. The  people  of  the  State  of  New  York  inherited 
and  brought  across  the  sea  the  political  and  social 
institutions  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
tury England.  The  Constitution  of  England  was  their 
constitution,  and  into  the  rights  and  benefits  of  Magna 
Carta  they  entered  as  the  lineal  descendants  of  those 
free  men  of  England  to  whom  those  rights  and  benefits 
had  been  assured  forever.  When  New  York  was  still 
a  colony,  Chatham,  replying  in  the  House  of  Lords 
to  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham's  speech  on  the  State 
of  the  Nation  (January  22,  1770),  said:  "The  Consti- 
tution has  its  political  Bible,  by  which,  if  it  be  fairly 
consulted,  every  political  question  may  and  ought  to 
be  determined.  Magna  Carta,  the  Petition  of  Right, 
and  the  Bill  of  Rights  form  that  code  which  I  call  the 
Bible  of  the  English  Constitution." l  These  three 
great  documents  mark  the  progress  of  the  struggle 
between  the  barons  and  the  people  of  England  with 
the  Plantagenet,  the  Tudor,  and  the  Stuart  kings, 
through  which  struggles  the  government  of  England 
was  gradually  transformed  from  a  feudal  monarchy 
into  a  democracy  in  fact,  with  an  elective  kingship 
and  an  aristocratic  social  system.  Through  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  and  the  successful  war  which 
followed,  the  American  people  assured  to  themselves 
the  benefits  of  democracy  but  revolted  forever  against 

Thackeray,  A  History  of  the  Right  Honorable  William  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham  (London,  1827),  II,  156. 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  269 

the  kingship  and  a  social  system  based  on  caste.  The 
chain,  therefore,  between  Magna  Carta  and  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  State  of  New  York,  now  undergoing 
scrutiny  and  revision  at  your  hands,  as  elected  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people,  is  clear  and  complete. 

The  government  of  men  and  the  guarantees  of 
justice  and  liberty  have  strangely  lagged  behind  the 
other  evidences  and  instrumentalities  of  civilization. 
When  one  reflects  upon  the  learning,  the  art,  the  archi- 
tecture, and  the  literature  of  the  thirteenth  century 
it  seems  hardly  conceivable  that  the  King  of  England 
and  his  barons  should  have  been  back  at  that  elemen- 
tary stage  in  the  development  of  liberty  which  the 
execution  of  the  Great  Charter  indicates;  for  the  thir- 
teenth century  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  striking 
epochs  in  the  whole  history  of  mankind.  It  is  the 
century  when  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
earnest  and  mature  students  were  assembled  at  Bologna, 
at  Paris,  and  at  Oxford,  to  make  the  beginnings  of 
those  great  universities  which  are  at  once  the  glory 
and  a  chief  mark  of  the  progress  of  the  modern  world. 
The  architecture  called  Gothic  was  at  the  height  of 
its  excellence,  and  some  of  those  fine  and  splendid 
monuments,  which  the  freer  men  of  the  twentieth 
century  are  battering  down  and  crumbling  into  dust, 
were  being  built  by  the  patient  and  skilful  toil  of 
lord-ridden  artists  and  builders.  Roger  Bacon  was 
performing  a  marvellous  service  in  mapping  out  the 
field  of  knowledge  and  even  in  suggesting,  by  what 
must  have  been  intuition,  some  of  the  most  modern 


270  MAGNA  CARTA,  1215-1915 

of  our  scientific  inventions.  The  great  cathedrals  of 
Lincoln,  of  York,  of  Chartres,  and  of  Bourges  were 
rising  in  all  their  rich  and  compelling  beauty.  The 
stories  of  the  Cid,  of  the  Holy  Grail,  and  of  the  Nibel- 
ungen  were  being  put  into  deathless  literary  form. 
It  was  the  century  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  of  Louis  IX 
of  France,  and  of  Dante.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  century 
when  some  of  the  classic  achievements  of  mankind 
were  going  rapidly  forward  in  a  score  of  ways;  but 
government,  justice,  liberty,  lagged  far  behind.  This 
was  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  harsh  grip,  and  in  some  de- 
gree to  the  attractiveness,  of  the  feudal  system,  which 
Professor  Vinogradoff  defines  as  "an  arrangement  of 
society  on  local  lines  under  the  guidance  of  a  land- 
owning aristocracy."  l  Nothing  could  oppose  a  stouter 
obstacle  to  the  progress  of  liberty  than  a  system  such 
as  this.  Each  local  lord  was  a  despot,  and  his  despot- 
ism was  based  upon  the  tenure  of  land.  Nothing 
but  an  all-powerful  absolute  king  or  a  world-shaking 
revolution  could  overturn  a  system  like  that.  The 
all-powerful  absolute  king  came  first,  and  the  world- 
shaking  revolution  followed  in  due  course.  It  seems 
odd  for  a  modern  democrat  to  speak  of  the  absolute 
monarchy  as  an  instrument  in  the  development  of 
popular  liberty,  but  such  it  undoubtedly  was.  The 
tyrannical  and  despotic  power  over  the  plain  people 
that  was  ruthlessly  exercised  wherever  the  feudal 
system  reached,  was  divided  among  countless  local 
magnates.  Each  one  was  a  despot  strengthening  and 
enriching  himself  at  the  expense  of  his  feudatories  and 

1  English  Society  in  the  Eleventh  Century  (Oxford,  1908),  p.  208. 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  271 

waging  constant  war  against  those  of  similar  rank  who 
assumed  to  be  his  equal.  If  the  feudal  system  was 
primarily  a  system  of  land  tenure,  it  was  secondarily 
and  only  in  slightly  less  degree  a  system  of  organized 
warfare.  In  any  case,  the  gainers  were  the  feudal 
lords;  the  losers  and  the  sufferers  were  the  people. 
The  first  step  toward  destroying  absolutism  was  to 
gather  it  together  in  one  place  where  it  could  be  dealt 
with  and  where,  if  worse  came  to  worst,  its  head  could 
be  cut  off  with  a  single  blow  of  the  axe.  This  explains 
why  Charles  Stuart  lost  his  head  at  Whitehall  in  1649, 
and  why  Louis  Capet  lost  his  outside  the  Tuileries 
Gardens  in  1793.  Both  Charles  and  Louis  paid  the 
extreme  penalty,  not  for  their  own  personal  misdeeds, 
not  for  their  own  acts  of  omission  and  commission, 
but  because  the  people  of  England  and  of  France, 
finding  that  all  despotic  and  tyrannical  power  had 
finally  been  gathered  in  the  person  of  one  absolute 
king,  determined  to  destroy  it,  not  merely  to  punish 
the  individual  monarch  but  to  symbolize  the  end  of 
an  era  and  a  regime.  So  it  happens  that  the  progress 
toward  liberty  is  by  the  tortuous  and  stony  path  that 
leads  from  an  absolutism,  divided  and  dissipated 
among  a  host  of  feudal  lords,  up  through  the  absolute 
monarchy  into  which  all  despotic  power  is  gathered, 
on  to  its  overthrow — we  say  it  with  profound  sadness 
— when  necessary,  by  violence. 

Lord  Acton  left  us  a  striking,  if  unfinished,  essay 
on  the  history  of  freedom.1     Next  to  religion,  he  tells 
us,  liberty  has  been  both  the  motive  of  good  deeds 
1  History  of  Freedom  and  Other  Essays  (London,  1907). 


272  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

and  the  common  pretext  of  crime,  from  the  sowing 
of  the  seed  at  Athens  two  thousand  five  hundred  years 
ago  until  the  ripened  harvest  was  gathered  by  men  of 
our  own  race.  He  calls  liberty  the  delicate  fruit  of  a 
mature  civilization,  and  takes  note  of  the  fact  that  in 
every  age  its  progress  has  been  beset  by  its  natural 
enemies,  by  ignorance  and  by  superstition,  by  lust  of 
conquest  and  by  love  of  ease,  by  the  strong  man's 
craving  for  power  and  by  the  poor  man's  craving  for 
food.  At  every  stage  of  human  history  the  sincere  and 
unselfish  friends  of  freedom  have  been  unfortunately 
rare.  The  triumphs  of  liberty  have  been  due  to  mi- 
norities, who  have,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  kept 
the  meaning  of  liberty  before  the  minds  of  men.  The 
rule  of  the  tyrant  is  tyranny,  whether  he  have  one 
head  or  many.  The  principle  of  absolute  majority 
rule  is  as  profoundly  immoral  and  as  profoundly  un- 
democratic as  is  the  principle  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings.  Majority  rule  is  a  practical  device  for  the 
working  of  free  institutions,  and  not  a  principle  with- 
out limits  or  bounds  upon  which  free  institutions  may 
be  based.  Liberty  is  something  more  than  the  right 
to  agree  with  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  another, 
whether  that  other  be  a  monarch  or  a  majority. 
Tyranny  is  none  the  less  odious  when  it  doffs  the 
royal  ermine  and  dons  the  garb  of  the  people. 

Lord  Acton  defines  liberty  as  satisfactorily  as  it  has 
been  defined  by  any  one.  He  says  that  liberty  is  the 
assurance  that  every  man  shall  be  protected  in  doing 
what  he  believes  his  duty  against  the  influence  of 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  273 

authority  and  majorities,  custom  and  opinion.  In- 
dividual liberty  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  free  state, 
and  the  assurances  of  Magna  Carta  were  given  seven 
hundred  years  ago  to  the  free  men  of  England  and 
their  heirs  forever.  Into  that  noble  inheritance  we 
have  entered. 

In  celebrating  the  seven  hundredth  anniversary  of 
Magna  Carta  we  celebrate  one  of  the  most  notable 
happenings  in  the  history  of  the  American  people. 
Magna  Carta,  the  Petition  of  Right,  the  Charter  of 
Liberties  and  Privileges  for  the  inhabitants  of  New 
York  and  its  dependencies,  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  are  chapters  in  one  long  serial  story. 
The  story  traces  the  movement  of  the  English-speaking 
race,  from  the  old  island  home  to  the  far-flung  settle- 
ments round  about  the  globe,  whether  colonial  or  in- 
dependent, toward  securing  the  liberty  of  the  individual 
and  the  political  institutions  that  are  based  upon  it. 
There  is  a  constant  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide  of  au- 
thority that  is  easy  to  be  measured  against  the  rising 
structure  of  liberty.  In  the  ancient  world  the  state 
assumed  authority  not  properly  its  own  and  severely 
limited  personal  freedom.  In  the  mediaeval  period 
government  possessed  too  little  authority,  and  it  suf- 
fered other  and  alien  forces  to  intrude  upon  it.  In 
our  modern  days  states  fall  first  into  one  of  these 
classes  and  then  into  the  other.  They  are  for  a  time 
engaged  in  invading  the  proper  domain  of  liberty  and 


274  MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915 

then  for  a  time  they  are  engaged  in  neglecting  its  pro- 
tection. The  surest  test  by  which  we  may  judge 
whether  a  people  is  really  free  is  the  amount  of  security 
enjoyed  by  minorities.  Where  the  individual  is  as 
secure  in  his  opinion  and  his  lawful  practices  as  the 
majority  are  in  theirs,  although  without  the  authority 
of  the  majority  to  determine  policies  and  to  choose 
courses  of  practical  action,  there  true  liberty  exists. 
Therefore,  it  is  in  pursuance  of  a  sound  political 
philosophy  and  in  accord  with  the  teachings  of  history 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York  first 
defines  and  assures  the  sphere  of  individual  liberty, 
and  then  erects  and  limits  a  government  to  carry  on 
the  business  of  the  State,  to  care  for  the  common  con- 
cerns of  the  people,  and  to  see  to  it  that  no  man  is  so 
great  or  so  powerful  as  to  be  able  to  invade  the  liberty 
of  any  other  man,  however  humble  or  however  weak. 

There  is  then  a  most  real  and  vital  relationship 
between  that  striking,  half-barbaric  scene  at  Runny- 
mede,  hundreds  of  years  before  the  name  of  America 
was  known,  and  this  convention  of  revisers  of  the  fun- 
damental law,  assembled  in  the  Capitol  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  Imagination  inspires  this  relationship 
with  reality  and  gives  it  genuine  power.  Look  back 
across  the  tumbling  ocean  and  over  the  troubled  and 
blood-stained  centuries,  and  take  courage  from  the 
steady,  if  slow,  progress  of  liberty  among  men.  Order 
had  first  to  be  established  by  whatever  means  were  at 
hand;  killing  was  once  as  natural  as  rising  with  the 
morning  sun.  When  order  was  established,  then 


MAGNA  CART  A,  1215-1915  275 

opportunity  was  offered  for  men  to  exert  their  powers, 
to  express  themselves,  to  achieve,  and  to  possess; 
and  the  history  of  Western  civilization  is  the  story  of 
what  happened.  Under  the  rule  of  order  came  the 
struggle  for  liberty.  It  was  a  struggle  against  false 
philosophies,  against  vanity,  selfishness,  and  greed, 
against  the  grasping  for  power  and  the  fortifying  of 
privilege,  against  the  tyranny  of  the  one  and  against 
the  greater  tyranny  of  the  many.  The  mile-stones 
that  mark  its  path  are  far  apart,  and  one  mile  is  often 
many,  many  times  longer  than  another.  The  road  is 
narrow  and  steep  and  rough,  and  it  leads  sometimes  to 
the  edge  of  precipices  and  by  the  side  of  impassable 
morasses.  Nevertheless,  the  road  is  there,  and  the 
progress  along  it  is  plain  and  easily  marked  through 
the  ages.  To  define,  to  secure,  and  to  protect  liberty 
is  the  first  and  highest  aim  of  the  fundamental  law. 
If  Magna  Carta  was,  as  has  been  sometimes  said,  a 
reactionary  document,  it  was  reactionary  only  in  that 
it  revived  and  confirmed  liberties  that  had  been  for- 
gotten and  that  had  been  invaded  by  royal  power. 
These  liberties  are  part  of  man's  nature  and  an  attri- 
bute of  human  personality.  To  deny  them,  to  hamper 
them,  to  invade  them,  is  to  install  tyranny  in  the  land. 
To  take  note  of  them,  to  build  upon  them,  and  to  ap- 
peal to  them,  is  to  open  the  door  to  that  constructive 
progress  whose  limits  are  set  only  by  the  spiritual 
aspiration,  the  intellectual  power,  and  the  moral  ear- 
nestness of  man. 


XV 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  the 

State  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  State  House,  Boston, 

Massachusetts,  August  23,  1917 


Surely  this  is  an  inspiring  moment  in  the  history 
of  democracy!  When  those  principles  upon  which 
this  ancient  commonwealth  was  founded  and  upon 
which  our  nation  has  risen  to  its  place  in  the  world 
are  struggling  for  their  very  existence  on  the  field  of 
battle,  you  are  here  engaged  in  restudying  and  perhaps 
in  remodelling  some  of  their  foundations.  To  a  lover 
of  democracy,  and  to  one  who  is  optimistic  enough  to 
believe  that  whatever  be  the  immediate  signs  of  the 
moment  its  permanent  triumph  and  extension  are 
secure,  there  can  be  nothing  more  striking  than  the 
task  upon  which  you  are  engaged.  You  have  been 
summoned  by  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts  to  restudy 
not  the  superstructure,  not  the  ornamentation,  not 
the  minor  details,  but  to  restudy  the  very  foundation 
of  her  form  of  government;  to  see  how  far  ancient 
principles  still  maintain  themselves,  how  far  men  of 
an  open  mind  may  suggest  their  readjustment  to  meet 
new  needs  and  new  conditions,  and  to  take  account 
of  the  changing  social  and  economic  order  that  confronts 
us  all  around  the  world.  For  nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  in  this  very  war  democracy  is  experiencing 
a  new  birth.  It  is  coming  to  have  a  new  and  clearer 
understanding  of  what  its  principles  are,  and  of  how 

279 


28o  THE  MAKING  OF 

those  principles  are  to  be  applied,  and  it  is  going  to 
spread  its  beneficent  opportunity  over  millions  and 
tens  of  millions  of  human  beings  who  have  never 
known  it  before. 

We  all  know  the  history  of  our  Federal  Constitu- 
tional Convention.  We  know  the  history  of  the  Con- 
vention and  the  National  Assembly  of  France.  We 
have  seen  the  making  and  the  remaking  of  constitu- 
tions in  more  than  twoscore  of  our  sister  States,  and 
we  have  watched  constitutions  made  not  by,  but  for, 
the  peoples  of  several  European  nations.  May  it 
not  be  said  that  those  of  us  who  are  convinced  demo- 
crats and  believers  in  constitutional  government  have 
come  to  a  substantial  agreement  upon  three  great 
points,  and  that  these  three  points  will  shortly  be  in- 
cluded almost  beyond  peradventure  in  the  document 
which  is  to  issue  from  the  forthcoming  Constitutional 
Convention  of  the  new  democracy  of  Russia  ? 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  the  essence  of  a  sound  consti- 
tution that  the  method  for  its  amendment  shall  be 
such  as  to  put  within  the  reach  of  the  people  oppor- 
tunity, after  adequate  consideration  and  discussion, 
to  readjust  it  from  time  to  time  to  new  needs  and  for 
the  solution  of  new  problems.  We  are  sometimes  apt 
to  overlook  the  formula  for  constitutional  amendment, 
but  I  think  on  reflection  we  should  all  agree  that  it 
goes  to  the  very  essence  of  a  constitution  that  is  to 
be  a  document  of  advance  and  of  progress  and  of  life, 
and  not  merely  a  fixed  formula  for  a  given  year  and  a 
given  generation. 


28l 

And  then,  second,  are  we  not  agreed  that  there 
must  be  in  the  constitution,  if  it  is  to  last  and  if  the 
people  are  to  be  really  free,  an  adequate  organization 
of  liberty  which  is  based  on  our  familiar  Bills  of  Rights, 
and  which  marks  off  the  sphere  in  which  the  individual, 
either  alone  or  in  company  with  his  fellows,  may 
freely  undertake  those  various  activities  which  give 
him  opportunity  for  development,  for  self-expression, 
for  gaining  an  honest  competence,  and  for  its  enjoy- 
ment free  from  the  interference  or  arbitrary  act  of 
government  ?  And  do  we  not  know  that  in  that  or- 
ganization of  liberty  and  sphere  of  free  action  has  been 
the  great  contribution  of  our  American  nation  to  the 
world  ?  It  is  because  we  marked  off  a  field  of  liberty 
which  may  not  be  invaded  either  by  executive  or  by 
legislature,  and  put  it  under  the  protection  of  an  in- 
dependent judiciary,  that  we  have  been  able  to  build 
up  the  nation  that  confronts  and  surrounds  us.  That 
organization  of  liberty,  sufficiently  definite  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  people,  sufficiently  elastic  to  keep  its  limits 
from  solidifying  into  harmful  boundaries — that  organi- 
zation of  liberty  is  the  essence  surely  of  a  sound  con- 
stitution, whether  it  be  for  nation  or  for  common- 
wealth. 

And  then  there  is  the  organization  of  government 
itself.  Curious  enough,  this  is  the  only  aspect  of  con- 
stitution-making that  has  attracted  the  attention  of 
certain  of  the  European  nations.  If  I  am  not  mistaken, 
the  Constitution  of  France  and  the  Constitution  of 
Italy,  at  this  moment,  are  simply  organizations  of 


282  THE  MAKING  OF 

government  and  nothing  more.  They  set  up  a  frame 
of  government,  but  they  do  not  set  it  up  as  over  against 
a  field  of  liberty,  nor  do  they  attempt  to  protect  the 
one  from  the  other.  Therefore  they  leave  the  indi- 
vidual citizen  in  his  undertaking,  in  his  employment, 
in  his  activity,  at  the  mercy  of  a  passing  phase  of 
opinion  or  a  temporary  majority,  or  perhaps  even  of 
a  prejudice  that  will  pass  away.  There  is  no  great 
constitution  but  our  own  and  that  of  the  German 
Empire  in  which  any  reference  is  made  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  liberty — no  written  constitution;  and  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  German  Empire,  left  as  it  is  with- 
out judicial  protection  and  under  the  mercy  of  an 
autocratic  form  of  government,  this  becomes  little 
more  than  a  mere  formula  or  recital  of  words. 

You  are  concerned  at  this  moment,  I  take  it,  very 
largely  with  studying  the  organization  and  frame- 
work of  government.  It  is  mere  every-day  knowledge 
to  say  that  the  framework  of  our  government  has  come 
down  to  us  over  a  hundred  and  forty  or  fifty  years, 
that  it  has  done  reasonably  well,  but  that  here  and 
there  it  has  shown  defects  of  working  which  men  every- 
where are  sincerely  trying  to  improve  by  this  device 
or  by  that.  I  suppose  that,  taking  the  nations  of  the 
world  at  large,  the  political  experience  of  modern  man 
would  tell  us  that  one  of  our  greatest  mistakes  has 
been  the  too  sharp  separation  of  the  executive  and  the 
legislative  branches  of  the  government.  We  are  con- 
stantly trying,  now  by  following  a  device  familiar  in 
this  country,  now  by  following  a  device  familiar  in 


A  WRITTEN  CONSTITUTION  283 

another,  now  by  throwing-  out  some  new  idea  of  our 
own,  to  overcome  such  practical  difficulties  as  the 
history  of  the  last  century  has  developed  in  that  re- 
gard. We  are  aiming  to  bring  about  a  relationship 
between  executive  and  legislature,  now  by  the  sugges- 
tion of  an  executive  budget,  now  by  giving  cabinet 
ministers  seats  in  the  legislative  houses,  now  by  this 
device  and  now  by  that,  through  which  one  of  the 
weak  points — or  one  of  the  weaker  points,  shall  I  say  ? 
— that  history  has  disclosed  in  the  framework  of  our 
government  may  be  overcome. 

It  is  fortunate  that  about  all  this  there  is  no  sus- 
picion of  partisanship  or  party  advantage  or  party 
feeling.  I  know  from  the  printed  records  of  the  Con- 
vention that  you  are  here  as  loyal,  patriotic,  high- 
minded  citizens  of  an  ancient  commonwealth,  deter- 
mined on  studying  and  solving  the  problems  of  the 
moment  in  the  light  of  patriotic  duty,  the  wisdom  of 
experience,  and  the  needs  of  to-day  and  to-morrow. 
That  the  outcome  of  your  deliberations  and  your  sug- 
gestions will  be  fortunate  to  Massachusetts,  of  advan- 
tage to  the  nation, -and  useful  to  democracy  every- 
where, I  am  perfectly  certain. 


XVI 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 
NATION-BUILDER 


An  address  delivered  at  the  Hamilton  Club  of  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
January  n,  1913 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 
NATION-BUILDER 

You  have  summoned  me  to  a  grateful  and  an  hon- 
orable task.  To  a  lover  of  Hamilton  nothing  could  be 
more  pleasing  than  to  be  asked  to  speak  of  him  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  birth,  to  a  company  of  gentlemen 
assembled  in  a  club  which  bears  his  name,  in  the 
borough  on  whose  soil  he  received  his  baptism  of  fire 
in  the  War  of  Independence,  and  now  part  of  a  city 
so  devoted  to  his  personality  and  his  political  opinions 
that  it  was  called  by  his  enemies  Hamiltonopolis. 
But  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  say  anything  new  about 
Alexander  Hamilton.  Every  American  who  knows  his 
country's  history,  every  American  who  has  penetrated 
beneath  the  surface  of  our  political  life  to  an  under- 
standing of  its  making  and  its  fundamental  principles, 
knows  full  well  that  Alexander  Hamilton  has  joined 
the  company  of  the  immortals. 

You  need  not  expect  from  me  a  severely  critical 
estimate  of  the  man,  of  his  service  to  our  American  life, 
or  of  his  place  in  history.  I  love  him  too  well.  I 
am  too  much  under  the  spell  of  his  personality,  of 
his  eloquence,  and  too  profound  and  convinced  a  be- 
liever in  the  doctrines  of  liberty  and  of  government 
that  he  taught  and  made  to  live  in  institutions  on 
this  soil,  to  speak  of  him  in  words  of  cautious  and 

287 


288  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

hesitant  criticism.  You  will  have  to  accept  from  me 
the  reflections  of  a  convinced  believer  in  Hamilton  as 
the  one  supremely  great  intellect  yet  produced  in  the 
Western  world;  as  the  only  man  whose  writings  on 
political  theory  and  political  science  bear  comparison 
with  the  classic  work  on  politics  by  the  philosopher 
Aristotle.  I  am  prepared  to  defend  the  thesis  that  the 
two  great  epoch-making  works  in  the  whole  literature 
of  political  science  are,  for  the  ancient  world,  the 
Politics  of  Aristotle,  and,  for  the  modern  world,  those 
contributions  known  as  The  Federalist  and  the  various 
letters  and  speeches  which  taken  together  represent 
Hamilton's  exposition  of  the  American  Constitution 
and  the  American  form  of  government. 

There  is  nothing  that  I  can  say  about  Hamilton 
which  will  be  novel  to  members  of  a  club  that  bears 
his  name.  Yet  after  the  passage  of  all  these  years, 
what  a  splendid  memory  that  personality  suggests, 
what  a  romance  that  life  was,  what  a  revelation  of 
human  power  and  of  human  service  his  contributions 
to  mankind  and  to  the  progress  of  civilization ! 

I  like  to  think  of  the  strands  that  entered  into  the 
making  of  that  personality  and  that  character.  There 
was  the  high-purposed,  rugged  determination  of  the 
Scot,  together  with  the  almost  fanatical  devotion  and 
enthusiasm  of  the  Huguenot;  these  strands  not  meet- 
ing and  intertwining  under  ordinary  circumstances 
or  under  a  gray  and  unfriendly  sky,  but  under  the 
bright  sun  of  the  West  Indies  on  a  little  point  of  rich 
volcanic  land,  representing,  perhaps,  the  ambition  of 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  289 

mother  earth  to  thrust  herself  up  through  the  blue 
waters  of  the  tropical  ocean  in  order  to  make  a  fit 
birthplace  for  a  political  genius.  I  like  to  think  of 
the  youthful  beginnings  of  his  boyish  life,  of  the  ad- 
miration of  his  mother  for  her  brilliant  child,  who,  in 
infancy,  had  the  maturity  of  an  experienced  phi- 
losopher; a  boy  who,  at  nine,  was  writing  letters 
worthy  of  a  sage,  and  at  thirteen  was  managing  an 
important  business  for  a  distant  client  in  the  province 
of  New  York.  I  like  to  remember  that  when  that 
dying  mother  felt  the  hand  of  death  upon  her  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-two,  she  summoned  the  little  boy 
to  her  bedside  and  said  to  him:  "My  son,  never  aim 
at  the  second  best.  It  is  not  worthy  of  you.  Your 
powers  are  in  harmony  with  the  everlasting  principles 
of  the  universe."  Was  ever  a  child,  an  orphan  child, 
sent  out  from  an  island  home  to  seek  his  fortune  in  a 
new  and  strange  and  troubled  land  with  higher  proph- 
ecy or  with  more  beneficent  benediction  ? 

And  then  the  boy  crosses  the  sea  to  the  province  of 
New  York.  He  casts  about  for  an  opportunity  of 
obtaining  an  education.  He  is  thirsting  for  informa- 
tion. He  had  read  a  few  great  books,  books  far  be- 
yond the  capacity  of  an  ordinary  boy  of  his  age.  He 
was  seeking  direction,  instruction,  opportunity,  and  he 
presented  himself  to  President  Witherspoon  of  Prince- 
ton College.  He  said  that  he  wanted  to  become  a 
student  there;  that  he  had  no  time  to  devote  four 
years  to  the  very  moderate  course  of  instruction  of 
that  day,  but  that  if  he  were  allowed  to  pursue  the 


290  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

course  in  less  time  and  to  complete  it  earlier  he  would  be 
glad  to  enter  his  name.  The  president  told  him — after 
the  fashion  of  college  presidents — that  there  were  rules 
that  could  not  be  broken  and  that  his  proposal  was  im- 
possible. Did  the  boy  enter  himself  at  Princeton  for 
four  years  ?  Not  in  the  least.  He  moved  on  to  New 
York  and  appeared  before  Myles  Cooper,  the  schol- 
arly Tory  who  was  president  of  King's  College,  and 
made  the  same  proposal  to  him.  Myles  Cooper, 
trained  at  Oxford  and  more  a  man  of  the  world,  said 
that  it  could  be  arranged,  and  it  was.  So  Alexander 
Hamilton  became  a  pupil  in  King's  College  over  yonder, 
on  the  King's  farm,  just  beyond  where  Trinity  Church 
now  stands  and  not  far  from  the  churchyard  where  his 
ashes  lie. 

It  was  well  that  he  did  so,  because  within  a  year  the 
angry  mob  of  New  York  rebels,  stirred  to  anger  by 
the  actions  of  the  British  Government  and  by  reports 
from  across  the  sea,  as  well  as  by  the  Tory  president's 
pamphlets  in  defense  of  British  policy,  appeared  at  the 
college  doors  and  demanded  the  punishment  of  Presi- 
dent Myles  Cooper.  This  stripling  of  eighteen  stood 
on  the  college  steps  and  held  them  at  bay  with  his  elo- 
quence while  the  president  of  the  college  escaped  by 
the  rear  gate,  and  was  taken  off  by  a  boat  to  a  British 
ship  lying  in  the  Hudson.  If  Alexander  Hamilton 
had  gone  to  Princeton,  Myles  Cooper  would  have  been 
lynched. 

And  then  I  like  to  think  of  him  at  that  early  age,  a 
boy,  a  mere  child,  putting  down  in  the  note-books 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  291 

which  have  been  preserved  for  us  the  list  of  things  he 
was  interested  in  and  the  books  that  he  read.  In 
them  you  come  upon  this  item:  "Read  particularly 
Aristotle's  Politic sy  chapter  9,  Definition  of  Money." 
You  begin  to  see  the  shadow  of  the  first  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  of  the  author  of  the  Report  on  Manufac- 
tures, of  the  author  of  the  Report  of  the  National  Bank, 
and  of  the  man  of  whom  it  was  truly  said  afterward 
by  Webster  that  he  struck  a  blow  on  the  rock  of  the 
national  resources,  and  revenue  gushed  forth  for  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  At  seventeen,  then, 
Hamilton  was  reading  the  greatest  work  of  antiquity 
on  the  science  and  art  of  government  among  men. 

I  like  to  think  of  him  strolling  on  the  Common 
yonder,  at  the  head  of  what  we  now  call  Bowling  Green, 
with  the  youth  of  his  time,  eager  and  enthusiastic; 
then  writing  pamphlets  in  defense  of  the  rebel  position, 
that  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  country  in 
answer  to  the  Westchester  Farmer,  one  of  the  learned 
men  in  the  Colonies,  the  boy  concealing  his  own 
identity.  In  two  short  years  after  coming  from  his 
West  Indian  home,  so  completely  had  he  entered  into 
the  feelings  and  aspirations  and  hopes  of  the  Colonists, 
so  thoroughly  had  he  mastered  the  problems  before 
them,  that  even  before  they  knew  his  name  or  his  age, 
they  were  hailing  the  writer  of  those  pamphlets  as  their 
deliverer  from  the  oppression  of  Great  Britain.  I 
submit  that  in  the  whole  history  of  government  there 
is  nothing  to  be  found  like  this.  We  have  seen  great 
and  precocious  genius  in  literature,  as,  for  example, 


292  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

in  Chatterton;  we  have  seen  great  and  precocious 
genius  in  music,  as,  for  example,  in  Mozart;  but  where 
in  the  affairs  of  men,  where  in  those  large  matters 
that  have  to  do  with  the  organization  of  liberty,  the 
establishment  of  government,  and  the  perpetuation  of 
everlasting  standards  of  right  among  human  beings 
— where  from  the  dawn  of  history  have  we  before  seen 
a  youth  of  nineteen  leading  the  thought  of  a  people 
and  laying  the  foundations  of  a  nation  ? 

Then  I  like  to  think  of  his  part  in  the  army  during 
the  War  of  Independence,  of  his  close  association 
with  Washington  and  of  his  admiration  for  him,  and 
of  Washington's  dependence  upon  the  younger  man. 
I  like  to  think  of  his  eager  and  exultant  defense,  by 
voice  and  by  pen,  of  every  act  of  the  new  people,  and 
of  his  part  in  shaping  the  slowly  forming  government 
that  the  thirteen  colonies  were  feeling  their  way, 
tentatively,  toward  building  into  a  visible  and  perma- 
nent form.  I  like  to  think  that  at  no  single  step  in 
the  process  did  Hamilton  fail  to  take  a  most  conspicu- 
ous part.  At  no  time  did  he  fail  to  strike  the  heaviest 
blow.  Never  was  he  found  anywhere  but  among  the 
leaders,  the  real  leaders,  of  political  opinion  in  the 
American  colonies.  Whether  it  was  in  New  York, 
in  Massachusetts,  in  Virginia,  or  in  South  Carolina, 
the  American  people  of  that  day  doffed  their  hats  to 
Alexander  Hamilton  as  the  one  supreme  genius  in 
intellectual  leadership  and  in  exposition  that  they  had 
among  them. 

As  soon  as  the  war  was  over  he  found  his  place  at 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  293 

the  bar  and  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.  He 
warmly  defended  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain.  He 
insisted  that  it  must  be  lived  up  to  even  though  un- 
popular; that  even  a  young  nation  could  not  afford 
to  be  false  to  its  pledged  word.  He  insisted  that  our 
people  never  would  be  free  and  never  would  be  safe 
until  they  had  formed  a  real  government  with  real 
powers,  and  had  made  themselves,  not  a  loose  federa- 
tion of  independent  units,  but  an  integral,  inde- 
pendent, self-respecting,  self-supporting,  self-defending 
nation.  That  was  Hamilton's  task.  He  had  to  com- 
pete with  men  otherwise  minded,  to  overcome  preju- 
dices, and  to  answer  reasonable  as  well  as  unreasonable 
objections.  He  had  to  meet  all  these;  and  then  he  had 
to  combat  the  selfish  and  the  self-seeking  as  well.  He 
was  tireless,  this  stripling  only  then  in  the  twenties 
and  early  thirties;  tireless  with  voice  and  with  pen  in 
making  men  understand  what  the  United  States 
might  be  and  what  America  ought  to  be. 

Finally,  almost  by  a  subterfuge,  he  got  a  constitu- 
tional convention.  In  those  days  you  could  not  easily 
persuade  the  several  colonies  to  come  together  in  con- 
ference for  any  purpose,  lest  they  might,  in  some  way, 
as  a  result  of  conferring,  sacrifice  a  measure  of  their  in- 
dependence and  their  sturdy  separateness.  He  per- 
suaded some  of  them,  however,  to  convene  at  An- 
napolis to  settle  questions  relating  to  the  navigation 
and  use  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  Having  brought  them 
into  conference,  he  persuaded  them  to  call  a  consti- 
tutional convention.  He  did  not  quite  call  it  by  that 


294  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

name — had  he  done  so  it  might  never  have  been  held 
— but  he  persuaded  them  to  call  another  conference 
to  devise  a  more  adequate  plan  of  government.  He 
went  back  to  Albany  and  got  himself  elected  as  one  of 
the  three  delegates  from  New  York;  the  other  two, 
being  convinced  opponents  of  the  whole  undertaking, 
outvoted  him  in  the  convention,  so  long  as  they  re- 
mained in  it.  At  the  psychological  moment  Alexander 
Hamilton  took  the  floor  in  the  convention.  Was  he 
in  doubt  about  the  making  of  a  constitution  ?  Not 
in  the  least.  He  had  a  constitution  all  ready;  he  pro- 
posed it.  For  five  hours,  as  Madison  tells  in  his  jour- 
nal, he  held  spellbound  this  convention  of  the  ablest 
men  ever  gathered  together  in  one  room  for  a  like  pur- 
pose, while  he  explained  the  principles  on  which  the 
nation's  government  should  be  organized.  The  funda- 
mental principles  of  that  plan  of  government  are  con- 
tained in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  this 
year  of  grace.  Other  plans  were  proposed  and  many 
of  their  features  adopted;  long  debates  ensued,  but 
that  genius,  that  patience,  that  persistence,  that  skill 
of  exposition  never  failed.  His  two  colleagues  from 
New  York  left  the  convention  in  disgust  when  they 
saw  that  the  Constitution  was  going  to  be  made;  but 
he  remained  and  signed  it  as  the  sole  representative  of 
what  is  now  the  Empire  State.  Had  it  not  been  for 
Alexander  Hamilton  the  name  of  the  State  of  New 
York  would  not  have  been  included  among  the  members 
of  the  constitutional  convention,  who  accepted  and 
recommended  for  adoption  the  great  instrument  and 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  295 

the  form  of  government  that  were  the  result  of  their 
deliberations.  The  ardor  and  the  cogency  of  Hamil- 
ton's exposition  in  The  Federalist  of  the  meaning  and 
value  of  the  new  Constitution  are  more  convincing 
evidence  than  any  draft  plans  or  written  records 
could  possibly  be  that  the  Constitution  as  adopted 
by  the  convention  was  in  harmony  with  Hamilton's 
own  fundamental  convictions  as  to  political  policy 
and  political  practice. 

Then  came  the  heaviest  task  of  all — how  to  get  this 
Constitution  ratified  by  the  people  of  the  several 
States.  It  was  provided,  as  you  know,  in  the  instru- 
ment itself  that  it  should  become  operative  when  rati- 
fied by  nine  States,  but  no  one  knew  better  than  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  that  nine  States  would  not  do.  He 
knew  that  that  provision  was  a  mere  device,  and  that 
every  State  must  ratify  if  the  Constitution  was  to 
become  effective  and  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 

There  followed  what  I  venture  to  think  is,  perhaps, 
the  greatest  forensic  triumph  of  modern  times.  The 
Convention  of  the  State  of  New  York  met  at  Pough- 
keepsie.  There  were  sixty-five  delegates  from  the 
various  counties  of  the  State.  Nineteen  of  them,  in- 
cluding Hamilton  and  the  other  delegates  from  New 
York,  Kings,  and  Westchester,  were  committed  to  the 
Constitution.  The  remainder  were  followers  and 
friends  of  George  Clinton,  who  bitterly  opposed  it. 
Chancellor  Kent  has  told  us  what  happened.  Long 
after,  nearly  half  a  century  after,  Chancellor  Kent 
wrote  his  recollection  of  what  took  place.  He  went  to 


296  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Poughkeepsie  and  sat  in  the  gallery  of  the  convention 
and  listened  to  every  word  of  the  debates  for  six  weeks. 
He  has  told  us  what  Hamilton  said,  what  Jay  and 
Livingston  said,  what  was  said  in  reply,  and  how 
obdurate  and  stubborn  and  insistent  was  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution.  Hamilton 
sent  a  runner  out  to  the  east  so  that  he  might  report 
at  the  earliest  moment  the  news  whether  or  not  New 
Hampshire  had  ratified.  He  sent  a  runner  out  to  the 
south  to  report  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  the 
news  from  Madison  as  to  whether  Virginia  had  rati- 
fied. Finally,  by  sheer  force  of  intellect,  by  the  dis- 
play of  political  genius  of  the  first  and  most  enduring 
order,  Hamilton  wore  away  all  opposition  and  the 
Poughkeepsie  convention  ratified  the  Constitution 
on  behalf  of  the  State  of  New  York  by  a  majority  of 
three.  That  was  before  the  days  of  bosses;  it  was  a 
time  when  men  had  to  be  won  over  from  one  side  of  a 
proposition  to  the  other  by  force  of  argument  and  by 
intellect,  and  Hamilton  wore  down  the  powerful  and 
determined  opposition  by  no  other  instruments  than 
those. 

The  Constitution  was  made.  What  was  the  gov- 
ernment ?  Where  were  its  resources,  and  what  scheme 
of  taxation  was  it  to  employ  ?  How  was  it  to  differ- 
entiate its  scheme  of  taxation  from  that  which  sup- 
ported the  several  colonies,  now  States  ?  How  was 
this  new  national  unity  to  develop  ?  How  was  it  to 
make  itself  real  ?  Obviously,  the  centre  point  of  the 
fighting-line  was  the  Department  of  the  Treasury, 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  297 

and  to  that  department  Alexander  Hamilton  went  at 
George  Washington's  call.  There  he  sat  for  the  six 
most  fateful  years  of  the  history  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States.  One  great  report  after  another 
was  poured  in  upon  the  Congress.  It  consisted  of 
clever  and  intelligent  men,  but  they  were  almost 
stupefied  by  the  wealth  of  information,  the  rush  of 
argument,  the  appeals  that  were  made  to  them  to 
formulate  a  system  of  taxation,  to  charter  a  bank,  to 
raise  revenue,  to  organize  a  treasury  system,  and  to 
call  the  latent  forces  of  a  nation  into  action  for  purposes 
of  national  support  and  for  national  administration. 
No  one  doubts — no  one  can — that  Hamilton  did  every 
atom  of  work  in  connection  with  all  this.  The  Con- 
gress had  hardly  anything  before  it  of  great  magnitude 
but  his  proposals.  It  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  accept, 
to  amend,  or  to  reject  them;  you  may  read  the  history 
of  those  Congresses  for  yourselves.  They  accepted  in 
principle,  and  almost  in  detail,  every  great  fundamental 
recommendation  that  he  made,  and  that  is  how  the 
1  government  of  the  United  States  was  built.  There 
was  no  use  in  making  a  government  that  was  a  frame- 
work of  bones  and  skin  alone;  these  bones  must  be 
covered  with  flesh;  these  arteries  and  veins  must  be 
filled  with  blood;  there  must  be  food  to  assimilate, 
power  to  gain  nourishment,  ability  to  act.  Hamilton 
saw  to  it  that  all  this  was  done.  Read  the  history  of 
the  first  three  Congresses.  Read  the  communications 
made  to  them;  read  their  debates,  their  votes;  read 
the  history  of  Washington's  administration,  and  tell 


298  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

me  whether  Alexander  Hamilton  did  not  make  the 
government  of  the  United  States  in  body  and  in  spirit, 
just  as  truly  as  he  had  planned  and  constructed  it  in 
form. 

Hamilton  withdrew  from  the  service  of  the  govern- 
ment at  thirty-eight.  At  thirty-eight  this  great  epoch- 
making  work  was  done.  At  an  age  when  most  men, 
even  those  of  talent,  of  power,  of  training,  are  just 
ready  for  the  active  and  constructive  work  of  life, 
Alexander  Hamilton  was  through  as  the  builder  of  the 
greatest  government  of  any  people  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  He  withdrew  to  the  practice  of  the  law. 
He  lived  over  across  the  river  in  Wall  Street  at  No. 
58,  in  a  little  house  almost  opposite  the  great  building 
which  was  formerly  the  Custom-House,  well  known  to 
all  of  us.  It  was  in  passing  that  house  that  no  less  a 
person  than  Talleyrand,  on  his  visit  to  New  York,  said, 
when  he  saw  the  light  burning  in  Hamilton's  study 
window  at  midnight:  "I  have  seen  the  eighth  wonder 
of  the  world.  I  have  seen  a  man  laboring  at  midnight 
for  the  support  of  his  family  who  has  made  the  fortune 
of  a  nation." 

Hamilton's  career  at  the  bar  was  without  an  equal. 
As  an  advocate  and  in  exposition,  particularly  in  de- 
fense of  fundamental  principles  of  justice  and  equity 
and  human  liberty,  the  testimony  is  that  he  was  a 
marvel  of  lucidity  and  of  power.  Long  afterward — 
in  1832,  I  think  it  was — Chancellor  Kent  wrote  a  strik- 
ing letter  to  Mrs.  Hamilton.  Hamilton  had  then  been 
dead  twenty-eight  years  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  was  an 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  299 

old  lady.  She  wrote  to  Chancellor  Kent  and  asked 
him  whether  he  would  not  put  on  record  some  of  his 
reminiscences  of  her  husband;  whether  he  would  not 
tell  her  what  he,  Kent,  thought  about  Hamilton's 
relations  to  the  making  of  the  Constitution;  what  he, 
Kent,  thought  about  his  work  at  Poughkeepsie  where 
Kent  had  watched  him,  and  what  he,  Kent,  thought 
about  his  work  at  the  American  bar.  Kent  wrote  in 
reply  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  charming  analytical 
eulogies  that  one  human  being  could  write  of  another. 
Remember  that  Kent  was,  with  Marshall,  the  great- 
est of  American  jurists;  remember  that  Hamilton  had 
been  dead  and  gone  for  twenty-eight  years;  remem- 
ber that  the  shadow  of  the  great  contest  as  to  slavery 
was  already  projecting  itself  over  the  land;  remem- 
ber that  new  men  and  new  issues  were  in  the  places 
of  prominence,  and  that  there  was  nothing  due  to 
Hamilton  but  the  dispassionate,  fair,  and  honorable 
judgment  of  history.  Kent  rendered  this  judgment 
in  one  of  the  most  memorable  documents  of  our  Amer- 
ican literature.  I  commend  it  to  every  student  of 
American  politics  and  American  literature.  It  tells 
us  what  James  Kent,  that  maker  and  interpreter  of 
American  law,  thought  about  Alexander  Hamilton  as 
the  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  of  the  government, 
the  bench,  and  the  bar  of  his  day. 

I  have  wondered  sometimes  whether  Kent  must  not 
have  overheard  one  of  Hamilton's  most  charming 
sayings,  many  years  before,  when  they  were  on  circuit 
together — as  I  remember  it,  in  Orange  County  in  this 


300  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

State — Kent  as  judge,  Hamilton  as  barrister.  They 
found  themselves  spending  the  night  in  an  uncomforta- 
ble and  ill-furnished  tavern  in  a  country  town.  Hamil- 
ton awakened  in  the  night,  shivering  because  of  the 
insufficiency  of  his  covering;  he  got  up  from  his  bed 
and  with  his  covering  in  his  arms  carried  it  into  the 
room  where  Kent  was  sleeping,  and  quietly  and  softly 
spread  it  over  him,  saying:  "Sleep  well,  sleep  warm, 
little  judge;  we  cannot  afford  to  have  harm  come  to 
you."  I  have  often  wondered  whether  Kent  in  his 
sleep  did  not  hear  these  affectionate  words,  and  whether 
he  did  not  fifty  years  afterward  reflect,  in  his  judgment 
to  the  stricken  widow,  something  of  the  feeling  of  affec- 
tion and  regard  which  the  great  barrister,  the  great 
constructive  statesman,  felt  for  him. 

Then  came  Hamilton's  end;  that  tragic,  fateful  end, 
to  be  ascribed,  as  we  look  back  on  it  now,  to  the  false 
sense  of  honor  that  prevailed  a  century  ago,  which 
made  men  think  that  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  kill 
each  other  in  order  to  avenge  a  fancied  or  a  real  insult. 
In  this  connection,  too,  I  recall  now  another  interesting 
story  of  Kent.  Kent  had  been  a  friend  of  Aaron  Burr, 
but  the  devoted  admirer  of  Hamilton.  He  never  saw 
Burr  for  years  after  this  terrible  calamity  until  one 
day  when  Kent  was  walking  up  Nassau  Street,  in  New 
York,  he  saw  Burr  coming  down  on  the  other  side. 
The  little  Chancellor  crossed  the  pavement  and  went 
over  to  Burr  and  said:  "Mr.  Burr,  you  are  a  damned 
scoundrel.  Sir,  you  are  a  damned  scoundrel!"  Burr 
looked  steadily  at  him,  took  off  his  hat,  and  replied 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  301 

with  mock  politeness:  "Mr.  Chancellor,  your  judg- 
ments are  always  entitled  to  be  received  with  re- 
spect/' 

It  is  not  possible  for  us — even  for  those  of  us  who 
remember  the  taking  off  of  Lincoln,  the  killing  of  Gar- 
field,  or  the  murder  of  McKinley — to  picture  the  feel- 
ing of  this  country — then  a  mere  strip  on  the  seaboard 
to  be  sure,  without  telegraphs,  without  telephones  or 
rapid  post — when  it  was  learned  that  Hamilton  was 
dead.  It  did  not  seem  possible  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  of  that  day  that  this  very  symbol  of 
power  and  vitality,  this  centre  of  the  constructive  force 
of  the  nation,  who  seemed  able  by  his  charm  and  per- 
suasiveness and  potency  to  ride  down  every  obstacle, 
to  conquer  enemies,  and  to  bring  the  great  mass  of  the 
population  to  the  support  of  his  specific  projects — 
it  did  not  seem  possible  that  at  forty-seven  Alexander 
Hamilton  had  passed  from  earth.  And  yet  he  had. 

Before  venturing  to  speak  to  you  on  this  subject,  I 
have  been  reading  over  again  the  records  of  that  time, 
in  order  to  get  back  into  the  atmosphere  of  the  period, 
to  catch  something  of  its  feeling,  and  to  refresh  my 
memory  as  to  some  of  the  men  and  events  of  those 
years.  In  doing  so  I  came  upon  the  funeral  oration 
delivered  two  weeks  after  Hamilton's  death  by  the 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  of  that  day,  by  Dr.  Mason, 
senior  minister  of  the  Collegiate  Dutch  Church  in  New 
York,  who  was  the  favorite  pulpit  orator  of  this  part 
of  the  United  States.  He  had  been  selected  to  deliver 
the  funeral  oration  on  Hamilton  before  the  Society  of 


302  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  Cincinnati  at  a  great  meeting  called  in  New  York, 
and  I  ask  the  privilege  of  reading  a  few  paragraphs 
from  that  oration  in  order  to  take  you  back  with  me 
into  the  atmosphere  of  July,  1804,  when  it  was  known 
that  Hamilton  was  really  dead. 

After  describing  Hamilton's  career,  what  was  then 
so  fresh,  so  new,  so  full  of  suggestion,  and  after  tracing 
the  whole  history  of  the  making  of  the  Constitution, 
Dr.  Mason  concluded  his  oration  with  these  words  : 

The  result  is  in  your  hands.  It  is  in  your  national  existence. 
Not  such,  indeed,  as  Hamilton  wished,  but  such  as  he  could  obtain, 
and  as  the  States  would  ratify,  is  the  Federal  Constitution.  His 
ideas  of  a  government  which  should  elevate  the  character,  preserve 
the  unity,  and  perpetuate  the  liberties  of  America,  went  beyond 
the  provisions  of  that  instrument.  Accustomed  to  view  men  as 
they  are,  and  to  judge  of  what  they  will  be,  from  what  they  ever 
have  been,  he  distrusted  any  political  order  which  admits  the  bane- 
ful charity  of  supposing  them  to  be  what  they  ought  to  be.  He 
knew  how  averse  they  are  from  even  wholesome  restraint;  how 
obsequious  to  flattery;  how  easily  deceived  by  misrepresentation; 
how  partial,  how  vehement,  how  capricious.  He  knew  that  vanity, 
the  love  of  distinction,  is  inseparable  from  man;  that  if  it  be  not 
turned  into  a  channel  useful  to  the  government,  it  will  force  a 
channel  for  itself,  and  if  cut  off  from  other  egress,  will  issue  in  the 
most  corrupt  of  all  aristocracies — the  aristocracy  of  money.  He 
knew  that  an  extensive  territory,  a  progressive  population,  an 
expanding  commerce,  diversified  climate  and  soil  and  manners 
and  interest,  must  generate  faction;  must  interfere  with  foreign 
views,  and  present  emergencies  requiring,  in  the  general  organiza- 
tion, much  tone  and  promptitude.  A  strong  government,  there- 
fore; that  is,  a  government  stable  and  vigorous,  adequate  to  all 
the  forms  of  national  exigency,  and  furnished  with  the  principles 
of  self-preservation,  was  undoubtedly  his  preference,  and  he  pre- 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  303 

ferred  it  because  he  conscientiously  believed  it  to  be  necessary. 
A  system  which  he  would  have  entirely  approved  would  probably 
keep  in  their  places  those  little  men  who  aspire  to  be  great;  would 
withdraw  much  fuel  from  the  passions  of  the  multitude;  would 
diminish  the  materials  which  the  worthless  employ  for  their  own 
aggrandizement;  would  crown  peace  at  home  with  respectability 
abroad;  but  would  never  infringe  the  liberty  of  an  honest  man. 
From  his  profound  acquaintance  with  mankind,  and  his  devotion 
to  all  that  good  society  holds  dear,  sprang  his  apprehensions  for 
the  existing  Constitution.  Convinced  that  the  natural  tendency 
of  things  is  to  an  encroachment  by  the  States  on  the  Union;  that 
their  encroachments  will  be  formidable  as  they  augment  their 
wealth  and  population;  and,  consequently,  that  the  vigor  of  the 
general  government  will  be  impaired  in  a  very  near  proportion 
with  the  increase  of  its  difficulties;  he  anticipated  the  day  when 
it  should  perish  in  the  conflict  of  local  interest  and  of  local  pride. 
The  divine  mercy  grant  that  his  prediction  may  not  be  verified! 

He  was  born  to  be  great.  Whoever  was  second,  Hamilton  must 
be  first.  To  his  stupendous  and  versatile  mind  no  investigation 
was  difficult — no  subject  presented  which  he  did  not  illuminate. 
Superiority,  in  some  particular,  belongs  to  thousands.  Pre-emi- 
nence, in  whatever  he  chose  to  undertake,  was  the  prerogative  of 
Hamilton.  No  fixed  criterion  could  be  applied  to  his  talents. 
Often  has  their  display  been  supposed  to  have  reached  the  limit  of 
human  effort,  and  the  judgment  stood  firm  till  set  aside  by  himself. 
When  a  cause  of  new  magnitude  required  new  exertion,  he  rose, 
he  towered,  he  soared;  surpassing  himself,  as  he  surpassed  others. 
Then  was  nature  tributary  to  his  eloquence  I  Then  was  felt  his 
despotism  over  the  heart !  Touching,  at  his  pleasure,  every  string 
of  pity  or  terror,  of  indignation  or  grief;  he  melted,  he  soothed, 
he  roused,  he  agitated;  alternately  gentle  as  the  dews,  and  awful 
as  the  thunder.  Yet,  great  as  he  was  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  he 
was  greater  in  the  eyes  of  those  with  whom  he  was  most  con- 
versant. The  greatness  of  most  men,  like  objects  seen  through  a 
mist,  diminishes  with  the  distance;  but  Hamilton,  like  a  tower 


304  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

seen  afar  off  under  a  clear  sky,  rose  in  grandeur  and  sublimity  with 
every  step  of  approach.  Familiarity  with  him  was  the  parent  of 
veneration.  Over  these  matchless  talents  Probity  threw  her 
brightest  lustre.  Frankness,  suavity,  tenderness,  benevolence, 
breathed  through  their  exercise.  And  to  his  family — but  he  is  gone. 
That  noble  heart  beats  no  more;  that  eye  of  fire  is  dimmed;  and 
sealed  are  those  oracular  lips.  Americans,  the  serenest  beam  of 
your  glory  is  extinguished  in  the  tomb ! 

That  is  the  contemporary  judgment;  spoken,  to  be 
sure,  under  stress  of  great  feeling  and  deep  sorrow, 
the  contemporary  judgment  of  one  of  the  greatest 
orators  of  his  day,  voicing  the  opinion  of  men  of  in- 
telligence, high  spirit,  and  good-will  everywhere  as  to 
the  man  who  was  killed  by  Burr's  bullet  on  the  shelf 
of  the  Palisades. 

I  said  a  few  moments  ago  that  I  could  tell  you  noth- 
ing new  about  Hamilton.  This  is  all  a  twice-told  tale. 
This  is  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  our  American 
history;  this  is  part  of  the  very  fabric  out  of  which 
we  are  made  and  of  the  institutions  under  which  we 
live.  And  yet,  who  would  have  supposed  that  after 
the  lapse  of  a  hundred  short  years  the  work  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  must  be  done  all  over  again  ?  That 
is  the  condition  which  confronts  the  American  people 
in  these  opening  years  of  the  twentieth  century.  What 
Alexander  Hamilton  taught  of  civil  liberty,  of  freedom, 
and  of  order;  what  he  taught  of  effective,  responsible 
government,  of  its  purpose,  its  organs,  its  instruments, 
has  become  so  familiar,  so  built  into  our  daily  life 
and  into  the  fabric  of  our  business,  that  we  have  for- 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  305 

gotten,  many  of  us,  that  it  is  essential  to  our  welfare 
and  to  the  perpetuity  of  our  government.  Yet  to-day, 
from  one  voice  and  another,  meeting  a  fair  measure  of 
approval  all  over  the  land,  come  attacks  upon  these 
very  fundamental  principles  of  our  government,  until 
many  of  us  cry  aloud  for  the  spirit  of  Hamilton  to 
come  back  to  us  and  lead  this  great  empire  of  ours 
still  farther  forward  in  the  fight  for  the  permanent  up- 
building of  civil  liberty ! 

When  the  Constitution  of  these  United  States  was 
framed,  our  fathers  staked  out  clearly  two  great  fields 
of  activity  and  conduct.  On  the  one  hand,  they 
formulated  a  plan  of  government.  They  constituted 
it  of  an  executive,  a  legislative,  and  a  judicial  branch, 
and  they  ascribed  to  these  their  several  functions. 
Then  they  marked  out  just  as  clearly  the  field  of  civil 
liberty.  They  forbade  the  government  to  invade  it, 
and  they  erected  great  courts  of  justice  to  see  to  it 
that  it  was  not  invaded.  Never  before  in  the  history 
of  mankind,  and  never  since,  has  that  been  done.  In 
no  ancient  state,  in  no  mediaeval  state,  in  no  modern 
state  but  ours,  is  civil  liberty  a  part  of  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  land.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  German  Empire;  that  Constitu- 
tion written  after  the  war  with  France,  in  1871,  under 
the  guidance  of  Bismarck.  Neither  the  Constitution 
of  France  nor  the  unwritten  Constitution  of  Great 
Britain — none  of  these  modern  constitutions  of  which 
you  read,  not  one  of  them — defines  and  protects  the  field 
of  civil  liberty  as  our  fathers  did  one  hundred  and 


306  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

twenty-five  years  ago.  To-day  it  is  proposed  to  us 
as  an  advance,  as  a  step  forward,  that  we  should  unite 
to  throw  away  the  only  thing  which  distinguishes  us 
from  the  other  nations  of  the  world;  to  put  civil  liberty 
into  the  melting-pot;  to  make  it  subject  to  any  ma- 
jority, however  temporary,  however  fickle,  whether  at 
the  polls  or  in  the  legislature,  and  to  make  it  possible 
to  strip  a  man  of  his  property,  his  liberty,  and  freedom; 
and  that,  if  you  please,  by  any  mere  rush  of  tumultuous 
passion ! 

Never  has  a  more  preposterous,  never  has  a  more 
ignorant,  proposal  been  made  by  anybody.  In  abso- 
lute defiance  of  history,  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  his- 
tory of  Europe,  in  ignorance  even  of  the  history  of  the 
United  States,  without  any  appreciation  of  what  we 
have  been  doing  these  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years,  we  are  now  asked  to  strip  ourselves  of  the  one 
great  fundamental  protection  which  the  fathers  won 
for  us,  and  to  which  the  enlightened  peoples  of  the 
world  have  been  looking  for  a  century  and  a  quarter 
as  the  greatest  evidence  of  political  progress  that  man- 
kind has  ever  seen ! 

I  submit  that  it  requires  not  only  a  large  measure 
of  ignorance,  but  a  total  lack  of  the  sense  of  humor, 
to  propose  such  a  programme  in  the  name  of  advance. 
This  new  programme  may  be  a  wise  one,  but  then 
put  upon  it  the  name  that  belongs  to  it — reaction ! 
Say  frankly  that  we  have  gone  ahead  too  fast;  that  we 
have  staked  out  territory  that  man  is  still  incompetent 
to  occupy;  that  we  are  not  ready  for  liberty;  that  we 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  307 

should  go  back  to  the  days  of  Francis  I  and  Henry  IV 
and  Henry  VIII,  and,  substituting  the  many  for  the 
one,  turn  over  our  civil  liberty  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  a  tyrant.  That  is  what  is  seriously  proposed  to 
the  American  people  to-day. 

This  is  not  a  party  question;  it  rises  far  above  fac- 
tion or  names  or  personalities  or  political  parties.  I 
beg  you  to  believe  that  I  should  not  speak  of  this  matter 
in  this  presence,  on  an  occasion  such  as  this,  did  I 
not  believe  that  it  goes  to  the  very  roots  of  our  Ameri- 
can life,  and  that  those  things  with  which  the  great 
names  of  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  and  Washington 
and  Madison  and  Marshall  and  Webster  and  Lincoln 
are  associated  are  at  stake.  They  are  all  at  stake  in 
the  issues  that  are  being  debated  before  the  American 
people  to-day. 

You  may,  if  you  choose,  solace  yourselves  with  the 
optimistic  thought  that  everything  will  come  out  well. 
Hamilton  never  did.  He  saw  to  it  that  it  came  out 
well.  He  addressed  himself  to  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention lest  error  be  made.  He  later  addressed  him- 
self to  the  New  York  convention  at  Poughkecpsie 
lest  the  Constitution  be  rejected.  He  addressed  him- 
self to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  lest  we  have 
no  adequate  financial  system,  no  national  income,  and 
no  properly  ordered  system  of  taxation.  He  was  never 
content  to  let  matters  drift.  He  saw  to  it — trusting 
as  he  did,  and  as  every  American  must,  in  the  good 
faith,  the  honor,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  American 
people — he  saw  to  it  that  the  facts  were  laid  before 


308  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

them  with  such  clearness,  the  arguments  adduced 
with  such  cogency,  the  objections  answered  with  such 
overwhelming  force,  that  they  were  led  to  walk  in  the 
strait  and  narrow  path  of  national  safety. 

The  building  of  this  nation  has  been  a  long,  a  solemn, 
and  a  sacred  task.  It  is  the  work  of  four  generations 
of  men  who  have  conceived  lofty  ideals,  and  who, 
without  regard  to  party,  religious  faith,  or  section, 
whether  up  in  the  pine-forests  of  Maine  or  over  across 
the  continent  in  the  orange-fields  of  California  or  down 
on  the  plantations  of  the  sunny  South,  have  wrought 
for  freedom,  for  liberty,  for  stability,  for  justice.  The 
American  people  have,  in  a  singular  sense,  regarded 
themselves  as  the  instruments  of  Providence  in  the 
working  out  of  a  great  government  and  a  mighty 
civilization.  Almost  alone  among  the  governments 
of  the  world,  they  have  been  in  the  habit,  from  the 
beginning,  of  invoking  the  Divine  blessing  upon  the 
deliberations  of  their  legislative  bodies,  and  they  have 
seen  to  it  that  religion  has  been  represented  on  every 
great  occasion  of  national  festivity  or  rejoicing.  They 
have  felt  that  here  in  this  Western  world,  with  an 
endowment  by  Nature  the  like  of  which  history  has 
never  recorded,  the  opportunity  has  been  given  to 
try  on  a  huge  scale,  opening  their  arms  to  all  who  would 
come,  the  fateful  experiment  of  self-government. 
Many  men  of  all  types  and  kinds,  soldiers  and  sailors, 
jurists  and  teachers,  legislators  and  executives,  phi- 
losophers and  popular  leaders,  have  contributed  to  that 
great  end.  But  out  of  them  all  I  name  six  men  who 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  309 

stand  forever  in  the  American  Pantheon  as  supremely 
important  among  those  who  have  builded  the  na- 
tion's government.  I  do  not  speak  now  of  those  who 
have  made  other  and  important  contributions;  I  have 
not  in  mind  those  who  have  led  great  parties,  who  have 
accomplished  important  acts,  or  have  set  in  motion 
great  and  fine  and  lasting  currents  of  thought;  but  I 
speak  of  six  men  who,  one  after  another,  have  struck 
the  blows  that  were  necessary  to  the  construction  of 
our  great  American  ship  of  state — the  nation's  builders. 

The  first  is  George  Washington.  Without  his  calm 
and  even  temper,  without  his  serene  and  unruffled 
mind,  which  was  as  influential  because  of  what  he  re- 
frained from  doing  as  because  of  what  he  did,  the  exist- 
ence of  this  American  nation  is  unthinkable.  His  is, 
beyond  all  comparison,  the  great  self-sacrificing  char- 
acter in  political  history.  Washington,  through  his 
personality,  drew  the  people  of  these  colonies  together, 
made  them  feel  loyalty  to  a  single  person,  and,  through 
that  person,  to  the  idea  which  he  represented,  and  then 
he  deftly  withdrew  his  personality  and  left  them  to 
worship  the  new  and  beautiful  ideal  that  he  had  given 
them. 

By  his  side  and  with  him  was  Hamilton,  the  supreme 
constructive  genius  in  political  philosophy  and  in  states- 
manship. He  showed  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it; 
how  the  executive  and  the  legislature  could  be  adjusted 
to  each  other;  how  the  nation's  business  could  be  car- 
ried on,  and  how  the  various  departments  of  govern- 
ment should  be  organized.  He  taught  the  great  mass 


3io  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  the  American  people  what  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples were  which  underlay  this  new  and  fateful  project. 

Next  comes  John  Marshall,  who,  from  his  great 
place  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  gave  to  the 
new  Constitution  that  interpretation — at  a  time  when 
two  interpretations  were  possible — which  welded  the 
nation  together  in  unity  and  gave  to  it  supreme  power 
and  legal  control  over  its  several  parts.  But  Marshall's 
work  was  challenged.  Thomas  Jefferson  petulantly 
put  obstacles  in  his  way,  and  no  less  a  man  than 
Andrew  Jackson  said:  "John  Marshall  has  made  the 
decision,  now  let  him  execute  it."  The  people  of  the 
United  States  had  to  be  taught  that  when  the  nation 
spoke — whether  by  voice  of  the  President,  the  Con- 
gress, or  the  Supreme  Court — when  a  constitutional  in- 
terpretation was  made,  it  was  to  be  obeyed,  even  if  it 
took  the  whole  of  the  nation's  power  to  compel  obedi- 
ence. 

That  great  act  of  public  education  was  performed 
by  this  same  rugged  Andrew  Jackson  of  Tennessee  in 
his  great  proclamation  to  the  nullifiers  of  South  Caro- 
lina. When  the  distinguished  gentlemen  of  South 
Carolina  said  they  would  not  enforce  the  tariff  act, 
that  they  did  not  approve  of  it,  that  they  would  not 
accept  it  for  their  State,  Andrew  Jackson — speaking 
perhaps  by  the  pen  of  the  great  jurist  Edward  Living- 
ston of  Louisiana — made  a  famous  proclamation  to 
the  nullifiers  in  which  was  conveyed  the  substance  of 
his  reported  personal  message  to  John  C.  Calhoun, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  all  American  statesmen  and 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  311 

political  philosophers.  This  was  that  if  one  drop  of 
blood  was  shed  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  he,  Andrew  Jackson,  would  hang  the  first  nulli- 
fier  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  to  the  first  tree  he  could 
find.  And  so  the  laws  of  the  United  States  were  not 
nullified  in  South  Carolina.  There  was  a  compro- 
mise ?  Perhaps,  but  there  was  also  no  nullification. 
The  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  were  undisputed 
thereafter,  and  this  nation  took  a  long  step  forward 
toward  real  nationality. 

Then  came  the  eloquent  voice  of  Daniel  Webster, 
who,  for  thirty  years  at  the  bar,  on  the  platform,  and 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  educated  public 
opinion  to  a  point  where  resistance  to  the  secession 
movement  that  had  to  come  was  both  natural  and 
necessary.  We  need  not  blink  the  fact  that  without 
Daniel  Webster  the  Civil  War  could  not  have  been 
fought  to  a  successful  conclusion.  It  was  not  possible 
to  rest  our  national  contention  in  that  war  upon  a 
purely  legal  basis,  even  upon  legal  propositions  so  clear 
and  firm;  for  they  were  cold  and  rational  only.  Daniel 
Webster  had  for  thirty  years  made  them  live.  He 
burned  into  the  hearts  of  the  American  people  the  idea 
of  nationality.  Whether  you  take  one  great  speech 
at  Plymouth,  another  at  Boston,  another  in  New 
York,  or  the  great  and  conclusive  reply  to  Hayne  in 
the  Senate,  it  makes  no  difference;  they  are  all  part 
of  one  great  going  to  school  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States  to  Daniel  Webster.  He  taught  them 
not  alone  in  terms  of  constitutional  law  and  of  legal 


312  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

definitions,  but  in  terms  of  every-day  thought  and  feel- 
ing and  action,  that  this  nation  was  one.  It  was  he 
who  prepared  the  way  for  what  followed. 

Daniel  Webster  made  it  possible  for  Abraham  Lin- 
coln— that  sad,  patient,  long-suffering  man — to  carry 
this  nation  through  the  final  crisis  of  its  birth  throes; 
because  he  had  put  under  him  and  behind  him  the 
great  body  of  opinion  which  believed  that  this  nation 
was  one,  was  to  be  kept  one,  was  to  live  as  one,  and 
was  to  live  as  a  free  people. 

These  six  men  are  both  the  symbols  and  the  mov- 
ing forces  of  the  constructive  nation-building  of  the 
American  people.  They  are  drawn  from  all  parts  of 
the  United  States,  from  different  classes  of  society, 
with  varying  political  views,  touching  the  people 
with  different  interests  and  at  different  points.  These 
six  men  are  the  most  prominent  in  the  galaxy  of  our 
nation-building  heroes.  Each  one  of  them  would  be 
affrighted  could  he  know  from  his  place  in  high  heaven 
that  at  this  late  day  it  is  seriously  proposed  in  the  name 
of  greater  justice,  of  more  effective  advance,  to  under- 
mine and  to  break  down  the  very  foundations  on  which 
this  government  and  the  civilization  of  this  people 
rest. 

And  so,  as  we  mark  this  anniversary  of  Hamilton's 
birth  and  pay  to  him  the  highest  tribute,  we  can  give 
him  his  most  just  and  well-earned  recognition  only  if 
we  remember  not  alone  what  he  was,  not  alone  what 
he  did,  but  what  bearing  all  that  has  upon  the  America 
of  to-day;  what  lessons  his  career  and  his  teachings 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  313 

have  in  relation  to  the  great  problems  of  politics,  of 
economics,  and  of  the  development  of  civil  liberty  that 
are  to  be  solved  in  the  future.  There  is  no  safe  guide 
for  the  future  but  the  experience  of  the  past.  When 
we  know  what  has  happened  under  certain  conditions 
we  may  with  some  assurance  predict  what  will  happen 
when  those  conditions  are  repeated.  When  we  see  out 
of  what  a  morass  of  mediaevalism,  out  of  what  a  morass 
of  injustice  and  ignorance  and  squalor,  the  people  of 
the  United  States  and  their  ancestors  have  come;  to 
what  heights  they  have  mounted  under  their  Consti- 
tution and  their  laws,  their  civil  institutions,  their 
liberty  and  their  freedom,  it  is  to  me  inconceivable 
that  as  these  people  come  to  know  what  the  issue  of  the 
moment  really  is,  they  will  turn  their  backs  on  Wash- 
ington and  Hamilton  and  Marshall  and  Jackson  and 
Webster  and  Lincoln,  and  tear  their  governmental 
structure  down  just  to  see  what  will  happen. 


XVII 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
AMERICAN 


A  minute  presented  to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  February  6,  1919 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
AMERICAN 

With  the  suddenness  of  a  thunderbolt  forged  in  a 
sky  that  had  but  just  begun  to  darken,  the  life  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt  ended,  without  suffering  or  strug- 
gle, at  his  home  at  Oyster  Bay,  on  the  early  morning 
of  Monday,  January  6,  1919. 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  whose  roll  of  honorary  membership  was  adorned 
by  his  name  and  in  whose  halls  he  was  a  familiar 
friend,  halts  the  onward  march  of  its  business  to  pay 
sorrowful  and  affectionate  tribute  of  respect  for  his 
memory  and  of  admiration  for  his  life  and  character. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  native  son  of  New  York, 
and  in  his  training,  his  private  life,  his  public  service, 
and  his  countless  intellectual  interests,  represented 
and  reflected  the  life  of  the  great  metropolis  to  which 
he  was  always  proud  to  belong.  He  knew  and  loved  the 
New  York  of  the  early  Knickerbockers,  of  the  English 
colonists,  of  the  nation-builders,  and  of  the  long  series 
of  splendid  men  who  in  church  and  state  and  trade 
and  commerce  have  made  the  name  of  this  city  honored 
the  whole  world  round.  He  knew  and  loved  the  New 
York  of  vision,  of  constructive  sagacity  and  foresight, 
and  of  warm  and  generous  sympathy  for  just  causes, 
for  suffering  peoples,  and  for  stricken  lands.  He  knew 

317 


3i8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  loved  the  New  York  which  holds  aloft  the  torch  of 
liberty  at  the  nation's  gateway,  and  which  feels  every 
heart-throb  in  the  life  of  a  people  whose  homes  stretch 
from  pine  to  palm  and  from  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic 
to  the  long  rolling  waves  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He 
knew  and  loved  the  New  York  which  is  proud  to  be 
called  the  Empire  State,  since  it  is  an  empire  of  free- 
men bent  on  keeping  freemen  free. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  called,  while  his  young 
manhood  was  yet  in  the  making,  to  the  service  of  his 
city,  his  State,  and  his  nation.  At  each  successive 
post  of  duty  his  alert  human  interest,  his  restless  zeal 
for  action,  and  his  quick  appreciation  of  the  thing  that 
needed  immediately  to  be  done,  marked  him  in  his 
youth  as  a  notable  leader  of  Americans,  and  as  a  per- 
sonality of  quite  unmatched  attractiveness.  Within 
a  few  days  of  his  fortieth  birthday  he  was  chosen  to  be 
Governor  of  New  York,  and  for  two  years  filled  with 
distinction  and  high  acceptance  the  post  which  had 
been  adorned  by  George  Clinton,  by  John  Jay,  by 
DeWitt  Clinton,  by  Martin  Van  Buren,  by  William 
L.  Marcy,  by  William  H.  Seward,  by  Silas  Wright,  by 
Hamilton  Fish,  by  Edwin  D.  Morgan,  by  Samuel  J. 
Tilden,  and  by  Grover  Cleveland. 

Elected  at  forty-two  to  be  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  Theodore  Roosevelt  ascended  the  steps 
of  the  White  House  shortly  thereafter  under  circum- 
stances of  tragic  sorrow  and  amid  a  nation's  mourning 
for  its  murdered  Chief  Magistrate.  Of  native-born 
New  Yorkers  only  Martin  Van  Buren  had  before  him 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  319 

reached  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  republic,  despite 
the  rich  contribution  of  New  York  for  a  full  century 
and  a  quarter  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  leadership 
of  the  nation.  He  found  a  rich  and  rapidly  expanding 
people  forced  to  undertake  the  solution  of  new  and 
difficult  problems  that  went  to  the  very  roots  of  their 
economic  and  social  life.  He  attacked  these  problems 
with  the  ardent  eagerness  of  a  crusader.  He  had  an 
abiding  faith  in  the  American  people  and  supreme 
confidence  in  their  right  judgments,  if  only  they  could 
be  brought  to  see  the  facts,  all  the  facts,  and  nothing 
but  the  facts,  precisely  as  they  were.  His  adminis- 
tration accompanied  an  era  of  large  and  rapid  readjust- 
ment in  the  public  and  the  business  life  of  America, 
and  at  no  instant  was  his  firm  grip  upon  the  wheel 
that  steered  the  ship  of  state  in  any  degree  relaxed. 
Not  the  voices  of  those  who  personally  knew  and  loved 
him,  but  the  calm,  clear  voice  of  history,  will  appraise 
the  permanent  value  of  his  public  service.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  for  us  it  is  a  landmark  in  the  history  of  our 
nation. 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  ruling  passion  was  love  for 
America,  belief  in  America,  and  joyful  purpose  to  serve 
America  to  the  utmost  of  his  powers.  Singularly  en- 
dowed with  intellectual  alertness,  vital  force,  and  rich 
and  deep  emotions,  he  blended  these  attributes  to- 
gether in  a  personality  dynamic  both  in  its  generating 
power  and  in  its  popular  attractiveness. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  had  keenest  joy  in  combat. 
The  sense  of  conflict,  of  overcoming  difficulties  and  re- 


320  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

moving  obstacles,  of  beating  down  stupidity  and  malice, 
gave  him  gladdest  satisfaction.  Into  a  combat  he 
carried  every  power  of  his  being  and  for  the  battle  he 
used  every  resource  in  the  great  armory  of  argument 
and  cunning  and  skill.  He  hated  a  sneak,  a  coward, 
or  a  trimmer,  and  he  had  no  concern  for  him  who, 
knowing  the  truth,  dared  not  maintain  it. 

In  sixty  quick  years  he  lived  the  space  of  a  Methu- 
selah's life.  So  packed  were  those  years  with  incident 
and  activity  and  accomplishment  that  each  one  of 
them  seems  a  decade.  Yet  sixty  years  are  the  years 
not  of  old  age,  but  of  maturity.  Theodore  Roosevelt 
did  not  live  to  grow  old.  His  maturest  years  were 
spent  in  contact  with  great  questions  that  racked  the 
best  brains  of  the  world  and  taxed  the  stoutest  hearts. 
He  saw  clearly  and  true  the  underlying,  and  at  first  hid- 
den, significance  of  the  Great  War.  He  seized  quickly 
upon  the  moral  issues  involved  and  loudly  called  upon 
his  countrymen  to  play  the  part  of  men  when  the  world 
was  in  flames.  He  lived  to  see  one  of  the  two  great 
enemies  of  freedom  broken  and  vanquished  on  the  field 
of  battle  and  its  representatives  and  title-bearers  in 
flight  from  home  and  country.  He  died  while  the  other 
great  enemy  of  freedom  was  hissing  and  raising  its 
head  to  strike.  Who  can  doubt  that,  had  his  life  been 
spared,  he  would  have  been  in  the  front  rank  of  those 
who  fight  to  beat  down  anarchy  and  the  forces  of  un- 
reason and  destruction,  as  he  was  ready  to  go  into  the 
front  rank  of  those  who  fought  to  beat  back  autocracy  ? 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  passionate  love  of  humankind 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  321 

was  accompanied  with  an  equally  passionate  love  of 
nature  and  all  that  nature  had  to  offer  for  the  pleasure 
and  the  satisfaction  of  man.  The  animals  of  the  house- 
hold and  the  farm  were  his  friends  and  constant  com- 
panions. He  spoke  to  them  with  the  familiar  affec- 
tion of  a  father  talking  to  his  children.  The  habits 
and  characteristics  of  the  wild  beasts  and  the  history 
of  the  animal  dwellers  in  the  distant  and  dangerous 
places  of  the  earth  were  well  understood  by  him. 
The  flowers  of  the  garden  and  the  roadside  he  tended 
with  his  own  hand  and  the  birds  of  the  air  he  called 
each  by  its  familiar  name  and  note. 

With  all  this  many-sided  interest,  and  with  all  his 
zest  for  constant  action,  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  withal 
a  man  of  books  and  letters.  He  feasted  alike  upon 
prose  and  poetry,  upon  travel  and  adventure,  upon 
history  and  fiction,  and  upon  all  that  described  and 
revealed  the  world's  humbler  folk  and  children.  From 
his  wide  reading  he  drew  an  astonishingly  rich  and 
varied  vocabulary  and  he  has  given  currency  to  many 
striking  and  forceful  phrases,  bearing  the  stamp  sterling, 
that  will  continue  in  circulation  for  generations  to 
come  wherever  the  English  language  is  used  as  coin. 
In  the  Bible  and  in  Pilgrim  s  Progress  he  found  more 
than  one  word  or  phrase  that  his  ingenuity  as  an  ar- 
tificer made  directly  to  apply  to  conditions  and  hap- 
penings of  the  moment. 

Fully  to  comprehend  the  interests  and  affections  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  one  must  extend  the  scope  of  the 
famous  line  of  the  Roman  poet  and  say  that  he  was 


322  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

truly  a  living  being,  and  that  nothing  which  had  life 
was  outside  the  range  of  his  interest  and  his  affection. 

It  is  not  yet  possible  to  think  of  America  with  this 
busy  life  ended  and  this  ardent  spirit  gone  from  the 
arena  of  combat  and  strife  to  its  everlasting  rest.  In 
the  darkness  of  the  early  morning,  while  the  dawn  was 
still  awaiting  its  call  to  daily  service,  Theodore  Roose- 
velt set  his  feet  in  the  path  of  silence  that  leads  to  those 
golden  gardens  of  memory  where  rich  and  ripening 
spirits  love  constantly  to  dwell. 

May  the  Light  Everlasting  shine  upon  him ! 


XVIII 
THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND 


Introductory  remarks  at  the  Fifteenth  Anniversary  Banquet 
of  the  Pilgrims  of  the  United  States,  at  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  New  York,  March  5,  1918 


THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND 

To  mark  the  high  significance  of  this  night  no  words 
of  mine  are  needed.  For  fifteen  years  the  Pilgrims 
have  been  privileged  to  assemble  to  greet  notable  men 
from  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire  who  have  come 
bearing  eminence  and  fame.  To-night  we  mark  our 
anniversary  with  unprecedented  distinction  by  wel- 
coming at  one  and  the  same  time  two  of  the  most  nota- 
ble representatives  of  English  public  life,  high  digni- 
taries of  the  English  Church  and  of  the  English  State. 
What  memories,  what  images,  what  visions  are  called 
up  by  the  names  of  their  great  posts !  The  Arch- 
bishop of  York  and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England 
carry  us  back  to  those  early  morning  hours  in  the  his- 
tory of  free,  Christian  government  when  the  dawn 
was  breaking  that  was  to  drive  before  it  the  darkness 
of  an  outworn  world  and  of  a  pagan  worship.  As  the 
dawn  grew  into  day  the  light  of  liberty  in  church  and 
state  steadily  spread  itself  in  ever-widening  circles, 
until  to-day  the  whole  free  world  is  in  arms  for  free- 
dom against  the  last  lingering  obstacle  to  its  extension 
everywhere. 

During  that  long  bright  day  of  liberty's  life  there  has 
been  a  great  procession  of  Englishmen  and  men  of 
English  blood,  the  like  of  which  the  history  of  no  other 

325 


326          THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND 

nation  can  record.  Search  the  story  of  Greece  and 
there  are  not  so  many.  Call  the  roll  of  ancient  Rome 
and  it  still  falls  short  of  this  great  galaxy.  There  are 
Alfred  the  Great  and  Edward  the  Confessor,  the  second 
Henry  and  the  first  Edward,  Simon  de  Montfort  and 
Wyclif  and  Burghley,  Hampden  and  Pym  and  Crom- 
well and  Milton,  Chatham  and  Burke  and  Fox  and 
Canning  and  Gladstone;  and  their  cousins-American, 
Washington  and  Franklin,  Hamilton  and  Jefferson, 
Marshall  and  Webster,  and  last  of  all,  marching  alone, 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Where  else  can  the  history  of 
liberty  be  so  well  read  as  in  the  story  of  the  lives 
of  these  heroes  of  English  and  American  history  ? 
What  other  peoples  have  pursued  liberty  longer, 
more  earnestly,  more  steadfastly,  and  with  greater 
success  ? 

The  British  Empire  is  itself  a  marvellous  model  of  a 
community  of  free  states.  An  empire,  as  Burke  once 
said,  is  an  aggregate  of  many  states  under  a  common 
head,  and  there  is  about  the  name  no  necessary  im- 
plication of  either  arbitrary  or  autocratic  government, 
or  of  any  particular  form  of  external  policy.  An  empire 
may  be  free  and  liberty-loving  and  world-wide,  like  that 
of  Britain,  or  it  may  be  autocratic,  severely  disciplined, 
and  highly  concentrated,  like  that  of  our  Teuton 
enemies.  After  the  present  war  had  begun  to  run  its 
course,  a  celebrated  German  historian  announced  that 
the  world  would  be  healed  by  being  Germanized.  We 
think  not.  Great  Britain  and  America  have  already 


THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND          327 

stood  witnesses  of  two  notable  triumphs  of  the  mili- 
taristic spirit  and  policy,  and  they  are  resolved  that 
there  shall  not  be  a  third.  They  saw  militarism  tri- 
umph with  Metternich  as  a  denial  of  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  liberalism,  and  later  they  saw  militarism 
triumph  with  Bismarck  in  a  positive  victory  over 
liberalism  and  its  ideals.  In  this  present  conflict  it  is 
their  stern  and  steady  resolve  that  militarism  shall 
not  conquer. 

This  fight  and  this  stupendous  sacrifice  for  an  idea 
are  the  answer  of  a  new-born  world  of  the  spirit  to 
those  sciolists  who  see  in  history  nothing  but  a  cunning 
contest  for  material  gain,  and  who  weigh  all  effort 
and  all  achievement  in  the  scales  of  accumulated 
wealth  and  of  control  over  others.  The  power  of  the 
spirit,  armed  with  new  and  potent  strength,  has  ac- 
cepted the  great  challenge  issued  to  it  by  the  power  of 
material  interest  and  of  brute  force  in  human  affairs. 
The  end  may  yet  be  distant,  but  it  is  secure. 

Our  two  eminent  guests  are  in  their  persons  the  rep- 
resentatives of  Faith  and  of  Justice,  the  two  great 
pillars  of  all  civilization  and  of  all  progress.  It  is 
Faith  that  lights  the  fires  of  the  spirit  and  lifts  man's 
gaze  to  those  high  places  where  the  real  victories  of 
life,  and  the  victory  of  life  over  death  itself,  are  won. 
Under  the  guidance  of  Faith,  it  is  Justice  which  makes 
liberty  possible,  which  reveals  opportunity,  and  which 
protects  the  weak  in  his  sincere  effort  to  live  side  by 
side  with  the  strong.  It  is  just  these  achievements 


328          THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND 

of  Faith  and  of  Justice  which  constitute  Liberty;  and 
in  Shelley's  fine  lines 

"Yet  were  life  a  charnel,  where 
Hope  lay  coffined  with  Despair; 
Yet  were  Truth  a  sacred  lie, 
.  .  .  If  Liberty 
Lent  not  life  its  soul  of  light." 

In  the  earliest  hours  of  August,  1914,  the  govern- 
ment of  Great  Britain  was  called  upon  to  make  a  mo- 
mentous decision.  Belgium  had  been  wantonly  at- 
tacked and  its  neutrality  violated.  Great  Britain's 
name  was  on  the  bond  which  pledged  to  Belgium  pro- 
tection and  security.  Britain  was  at  peace  and  ab- 
sorbed in  grave  problems  of  internal  policy.  Should 
she  turn  aside  from  commerce,  from  industry,  from  the 
examination  of  insistent  domestic  questions  and  stake 
not  only  her  prosperity  but  her  very  existence  on 
her  plighted  word  ?  History  records  the  answer  and 
eternity  will  applaud  it.  There  was  only  so  much 
hesitation  as,  was  required  fully  to  ascertain  the  facts 
and  to  make  sure  that  there  was  no  other  alternative 
than  faithlessness  or  war.  Great  Britain  chose  to 
preserve  her  faith  and  to  accept  the  gage  of  battle. 
With  that  act  a  world-wide  contest  for  right  against 
might  and  for  freedom  against  despotism  was  begun. 
Great  Britain's  national  and  imperial  achievements 
since  that  decision  was  taken  stagger  the  imagination. 
Huge  armies  have  been  raised  and  trained  and  carried 
not  only  overseas  but  to  remote  provinces  and  to  dis- 


THE  WORLD'S  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND          329 

tant  continents.  Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand, 
India,  and  South  Africa  have  hastened  to  England's 
side  with  their  bravest  and  their  best.  Ceaselessly  and 
sleeplessly  the  British  Navy  has  done  its  epoch- 
making  work.  Vast  sums  of  money  have  been  pro- 
vided not  only  for  the  emergencies  of  war  but  for  loans 
and  supplies  to  allied  peoples.  Old  customs  have  been 
overthrown  and  long-established  habits  of  life  and  work 
have  been  quickly  set  aside.  As  a  result,  Great  Britain 
stands  to-day,  both  on  land  and  sea,  in  the  very  front 
line  of  Liberty's  defenders  wherever  the  contest  is 
being  waged.  There  are  no  words  that  can  adequately 
portray  this  colossal  effort,  and  no  appreciation  which 
can  completely  convey  the  extent  of  a  world's  obliga- 
tion. The  age  that  is  dying  finds  in  Great  Britain,  in 
France,  and  in  the  American  Republic  its  overmaster- 
ing conquerors,  and  the  age  that  is  coming  to  birth 
finds  in  them  its  natural  leaders  and  protectors. 

So  to-night  the  Pilgrims  celebrate,  with  all  the  hon- 
ors, the  presence  at  their  board  not  only  of  these  two 
eminent  and  honored  personalities,  but  of  two  chief 
representatives  and  spokesmen  of  that  England  which 
for  a  thousand  years  has  been  the  faithful  guardian 
at  the  gate  of  the  house  of  Liberty. 


XIX 
FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 


An  address  delivered  at  the  War  Dinner  in  honor  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  and  the  Members  of  the  House  of  Bishops 
given  by  the  Church  Club  of  New  York,  at  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  April  10,  1918 


FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 

A  kindly  fate  has  made  it  possible  for  me  to  have 
the  pleasure  of  that  friendship  which  Homer  described. 
It  was  given  to  me  in  this  great  hall  some  five  weeks 
ago  to  share  in  welcoming  the  coming  guest,  and  it 
is  now  given  to  me  to-night  in  this  same  hall  to  help 
speed  his  parting. 

These  have  been  memorable  weeks  for  us,  and  I 
trust  that  they  will  be  remembered  weeks  for  the 
Archbishop  of  York.  Much  has  been  crowded  into 
them.  He  has  asked  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God 
upon  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  has  ad- 
dressed great  audiences  in  halls  and  public  places  in 
twoscore  or  more  of  cities.  He  has  preached  before 
vast  congregations  in  cathedrals  and  churches.  If  it 
be  the  fact  that  but  ninety  or  one  hundred  thousand 
Americans  have  come  within  reach  of  his  voice,  I 
speak  nothing  but  the  truth  when  I  say  that  millions 
have  come  within  reach  of  his  influence. 

The  Presiding  Bishop  has  ventured  an  allusion  to 
old  York  and  to  New  York.  Your  Grace,  it  was  at 
New  York  that  you  fittingly  landed,  it  is  from  New 
York  that  you  will  set  sail.  I  could  spend  a  much 
longer  time  than  would  be  becoming  in  talking  to  you 
about  this  very  interesting  and  unique  and  attractive 
city.  Very  few  persons  understand  New  York,  and 

333 


334  FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 

many  persons  are  moved  to  speak  unkindly  of  it.  But 
it  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  its  more  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  history,  New  York  has  maintained  a 
singleness  of  character  which  the  historians  have  noted. 
In  turning  over  the  pages  of  our  scholarly  and  accom- 
plished historian  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer,  I 
found  a  fine  characterization  of  New  Amsterdam. 
She  describes  New  Amsterdam  in  this  striking  para- 
graph : 

Liveliness  was  one  of  the  few  things  it  never  lacked,  torpidity 
one  of  the  moods  of  mind  it  could  not  encourage,  peaceful  sloth  one 
of  the  careers  for  which  it  offered  no  chance. 

I  submit  that  those  words,  written  of  the  New  Am- 
sterdam that  was  passing  at  the  hands  of  Governor 
Nichols  and  his  corporal's  guard  into  New  York,  re- 
main true  after  two  and  one-half  centuries  of  this 
metropolitan  community  in  which  Your  Grace  has  won 
so  permanent  and  so  endeared  a  place. 

But  I  have  been  thinking,  as  the  Archbishop  has 
gone  about  the  country,  and  as  word  has  come  to  us 
of  the  great  impression  made  upon  those  addressed — 
now  by  this  sermon,  now  by  that  public  appearance — 
of  what  it  is  that  has  really  happened,  not  only  to  make 
his  visit  possible,  but  to  make  his  visit  so  splendid 
in  its  results. 

Do  you  remember  that  five  years  ago  we  were  all 
busily  engaged  in  preparing  to  celebrate,  in  fitting 
fashion,  one  hundred  years  of  peace  between  the 
nations  of  the  English-speaking  world  ?  Leaders  of 


FAITH  AND  THE  WAR  335 

opinion  in  Great  Britain  and  America,  eminent  ecclesi- 
astics, statesmen,  men  of  affairs,  were  all  taking  part 
in  the  formulation  of  plans  that  would  fittingly  mark 
that  great  happening  in  the  history  of  modern  man, 
when  suddenly  we  were  interrupted  by  this  stupendous 
cataclysm.  And  what  followed  ?  That  very  happen- 
ing, so  awful  in  itself,  has  not  only  celebrated  one  hun- 
dred years  of  peace  in  the  English-speaking  world, 
but  it  has  made  the  English-speaking  world  an  intel- 
lectual and  moral  and  spiritual  unit  for  all  time  to 
come! 

I  need  not  say  to  you  what  that  means,  and  is  to 
mean,  in  the  history  of  the  race,  and  in  the  history  of 
those  great  causes  for  which  the  free  world  is  now 
fighting.  My  friends,  as  we  sit  here  to-night,  over 
yonder,  across  three  thousand  miles  of  dangerous 
ocean,  there  is  a  battle-line  of  freemen  bending  back- 
ward and  forward  under  the  thrust  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  armed  men,  who  are  carrying  every  re- 
source that  modern  science  can  develop  to  aid  their 
purpose.  Over  there  is  a  little  thin  battle-line,  waver- 
ing backward  and  forward,  holding  precious  soil, 
defending  still  more  precious  ideals,  waiting  for  you 
and  me.  And  as  for  the  moment  the  issue  seems 
doubtful,  I  recall  that  there  is  a  famous  incident  in 
American  naval  history  which  one  likes  to  think  of  at 
a  time  like  this.  You  remember  that  when  John  Paul 
Jones,  sorely  stricken  and  apparently  overpowered, 
received  the  message  asking  whether  he  was  ready  to 
surrender,  he  sent  back  his  answer,  quick  as  a  flash: 


336  FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 

"I  have  not  yet  begun  to  fight."  Those  who  think 
that  there  is  about  this  great  contest  any  weakening 
or  compromise  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people, 
do  not  understand  them.  They  have  been  as  a  people 
slow,  too  slow  for  some  of  us,  fully  to  understand  and 
appreciate;  but  that  understanding  and  that  apprecia- 
tion have  come  to  them,  and  that  understanding  and 
that  appreciation  will  not  be  let  go. 

We  hear  much,  and  rightly,  of  the  conservation  of  our 
material  resources,  of  coal,  of  food,  of  labor;  but 
should  we  not,  and  more  especially  in  a  great  country 
like  this,  take  some  note  of  the  need  to  conserve  our 
spiritual  resources  ?  Are  we  not  at  a  time  in  the 
world's  history  where  we  may  perhaps  be  suffering 
from  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  exhaustion  ? 
Where  are  the  world's  great  poets  ?  What  voice  is 
singing  the  song  of  idealism  to  the  world  as  it  was  sung 
fifty  years  ago  ?  Where  are  our  great  idealistic  phi- 
losophers ?  Who  are  they  who  are  guiding  the  world 
as  it  was  guided  not  so  long  ago  in  paths  of  intellectual 
and  moral  and  spiritual  construction  ?  May  it  not 
be  that  in  fastening  our  attention  upon  the  satisfactions 
of  life,  we  have  turned  our  attention  away  from  its 
purposes  ?  May  it  not  be  that  in  our  eagerness  to 
weigh  and  to  measure  and  to  count,  we  have  turned 
our  faces  away  from  the  true  standards  of  value  ? 
And  may  it  not  be  that  behind  all  this  immeasurable 
suffering,  this  incalculable  loss,  this  perfectly  appalling 
sacrifice,  there  is  some  good  concealed  ?  May  it  not 
be  that  out  of  it  all  our  world — your  world  and  mine 


FAITH  AND  THE  WAR  337 

— is  going  to  learn  new  lessons  and  see  more  clearly 
than  for  a  generation  past,  the  enduring  standards 
and  the  full  significance  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
forces  ?  This  contest  has  restored  to  the  whole  world 
the  practical  power  of  Faith.  We  are  fighting  because 
we  have  faith  in  a  principle,  in  a  tradition,  in  an  ideal. 
Suddenly  all  our  zeal  for  material  gain  cools  and  slack- 
ens. All  our  accumulations  are  mobilized  and  hastened 
to  the  post  where  they  will  best  serve.  All  our  cus- 
tomary occupations  are  left  behind,  and  we  move 
with  rapid  feet  to  that  point  where  we  can  most  effec- 
tively sustain  Faith — faith  in  the  everlasting  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  and  justice  and  right,  which  are  them- 
selves founded  upon  eternal  Christian  truths.  There 
is  no  escape  from  the  meaning  of  this.  There  is  no 
escape  from  the  lesson  that  he  who  runs  may  read  in 
the  lives  of  men  and  women  as  they  hurry  to  do  what 
they  can  for  this  great  contest.  That  makes  me  not 
only  hopeful,  but  absolutely  confident,  of  the  end. 

I  came  the  other  day  upon  a  most  extraordinary 
letter  of  Lord  Acton.  It  is  a  letter  written  of  one  of 
the  most  famous  and  most  admirable  of  contemporary 
Englishmen.  After  describing  this  man's  extraor- 
dinary traits  and  characteristics  and  accomplishments 
and  powers,  Lord  Acton  ended  his  striking  portrait 
with  the  unforgettable  sentiment  that  his  subject 
was  capable  of  all  but  the  highest  things  since  he  had 
no  faith. 

It  is  just  this  that  it  is  possible  to  learn  from 
our  participation,  from  Britain's  participation,  from 


338  FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 

France's  participation  and  sacrifice  in  this  struggle. 
Those  nations  are  capable  of  the  highest  because  they 
have  this  faith,  and  as  they  grimly  turn  all  their  power 
and  all  their  resources  to  this  tremendous  task,  it  is 
nothing  but  faith  in  those  principles  that  could  by  any 
possibility  sustain  them.  Who  cares  whether  German 
Imperialism  rules  the  world  or  not  if  there  are  no 
principles  in  which  we  believe  ?  Why  should  not  the 
autocratic  power  of  a  German  empire  extend  itself 
from  pole  to  pole  and  all  around  the  world  ?  It  would 
give  order;  it  would  give  peace.  You  remember  what 
Tacitus  made  an  ancient  Briton  say  of  the  Romans: 
"They  made  a  desert  and  called  it  peace."  The  Ger- 
man imperial  power  can  do  that.  Why  should  we  not 
accept  this  lordly  and  benevolent  and  efficient  rule  ? 
And  why  should  we  not  subject  ourselves  to  this  Ger- 
man peace  ?  There  is  only  one  reason — because  we 
have  faith,  because  we  have  convictions,  because  we 
have  beliefs,  no  one  of  which  we  will  surrender.  It  is 
just  that,  just  that  and  nothing  more,  which  stands 
between  us  and  the  world-power  of  German  Imperial- 
ism. Those  armies,  those  navies,  are  sent  by  Faith 
to  fight  for  Faith.  There  is  no  other  enemy  that  Ger- 
many has  to-day  that  could  stand  against  its  might 
for  a  moment  except  Faith;  and  therefore  this  whole 
world  is,  through  this  insight,  through  this  new  grasp 
upon  realities,  through  this  new  and  amazing  revela- 
tion of  the  true  significance  of  things,  receiving  an  edu- 
cation in  Faith  and  its  power  the  like  of  which  no 
prophet  would  have  dared  to  predict. 


FAITH  AND  THE  WAR  339 

I  remember  so  well  the  impression  made  upon  stu- 
dents of  my  generation  when  we  read  the  first  paper 
in  the  famous  Essays  and  Reviews.  That  book  was 
published  in  1860,  and  twenty  years  later,  when  some 
of  us  were  in  college,  it  was  part  of  the  usual  reading 
of  serious-minded  students.  The  first  chapter  of  that 
book,  as  many  of  you  will  recall,  is  an  illuminating 
paper  by  Dr.  Temple  of  Rugby,  afterward  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  entitled  "The  Education  of  the  World." 
To  the  young  student  who,  for  the  first  time,  read  in 
these  clearly-stated  pages  what  was  the  meaning  of 
the  events  that  followed  after  each  other  in  such  extraor- 
dinary succession — the  eastern  world  and  Greece  and 
Rome  and  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern  Christendom 
— the  whole  of  these  happenings  seemed  to  take  on 
form  and  reason  and  persuasiveness,  and  the  youth 
seemed  to  understand  the  real  meaning  of  the  point 
at  which  he  stood,  and  how  that  point  had  been  pre- 
pared for  him  by  what  had  gone  before.  We  are  now 
in  another  stage  of  the  education  of  the  world.  It 
had  pleased  Providence  so  to  order  events  that  this 
tremendous  happening  has  taken  place,  and  those  who 
read  history  as  a  movement  of  intellectual  and  moral 
and  spiritual  force  and  power  toward  ends,  see  in 
this  another  great  step  onward  in  the  education  of 
mankind.  We  see  in  it  an  education  of  mankind  in 
Faith,  for  Faith,  and  to  a  new  appreciation  of  Faith. 

It  is  not  easy,  I  admit,  to  stand  in  your  presence  at 
a  moment  like  this  and  speak  of  anything  which  might 
be  considered  a  brighter  aspect  of  the  war.  One  would 


340  FAITH  AND  THE  WAR 

not,  if  he  could,  lessen  the  demand  upon  us  for  stern 
resolution  and  unbending  energy;  but  are  we  not  right 
to  try  to  seek  an  explanation  of  the  power  which  is  ours, 
to  try  to  seek  an  explanation  of  the  purposes  which 
we  profess,  in  terms  of  those  higher  values  which  are 
civilization  ?  It  may  be  that  there  is  a  long  story  yet 
to  come.  It  may  be  that  there  are  many  pages  of  this 
book  yet  to  be  turned.  But  one  thing  seems  to  me 
certain,  and  that  is  that  Great  Britain  and  America 
will  never  loosen  this  new  and  splendid  bond  of  inter- 
relationship. It  seems  to  me  certain  that  these  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  will  more  consciously  than  before 
accept  their  joint  responsibility  for  their  share  in  free- 
dom, for  their  splendid  place  in  the  history  of  liberty, 
and  that  they  will  not  treat  it  as  something  which  can 
be  left  to  care  for  itself,  and  be  subjected  to  the  buffet- 
ing of  tide  and  current,  of  time  and  circumstance,  of 
enmity  and  jealousy  and  envy.  We  Americans  shall 
have  a  new  purpose  and  a  new  determination  in  the 
protection  of  our  ideals,  and  we  shall  have  a  new 
sense  of  companionship  with  the  liberty-loving  peoples 
across  the  sea. 

It  is  impossible,  Your  Grace,  to  let  you  go  home 
from  this  American  visit  without  some  attempt,  how- 
ever imperfect,  to  express  to  you  in  public  presence 
what  your  personality,  your  speech,  and  your  teach- 
ing have  done  among  us.  We  shall  have  to  try  by 
what  we  do,  and  by  what  those  whom  we  can  influence 
may  do,  to  testify  not  by  words,  but  by  acts  and  deeds 
over  years,  to  our  sincere  appreciation  of  the  sacri- 


FAITH  AND  THE  WAR  341 

fice  you  have  made  in  coming  to  us,  as  well  as  to  our 
affection  for  your  person  and  our  profound  admira- 
tion for  the  people  and  the  cause  that  you  have  so 
eloquently  and  so  tenderly  represented  among  us. 


XX 

IS  AMERICAN  HIGHER  EDUCATION 
IMPROVING? 


An  article  written  for  the  Youth's  Companion,  Boston, 
Massachusetts,  June  21,  1917 


IS  AMERICAN  HIGHER  EDUCATION 
IMPROVING? 

We  can  say  that  higher  education  is  improving  only 
if  the  quality  of  its  product  is  being  steadily  height- 
ened and  if  it  is  constantly  adapting  itself  to  the  newer 
needs  of  the  community.  We  must  at  once  admit 
that  American  higher  education  lacks  some  of  the  very 
useful  and  helpful  characteristics  that  it  had  a  genera- 
tion ago.  It  lacks,  for  example,  the  admirable  dis- 
cipline that  a  student  gets  from  close  occupation, 
under  strict  surveillance,  with  a  few  difficult  subjects 
of  study.  No  educational  instruments  have  yet  been 
found  that,  in  disciplinary  value  and  in  capacity  to 
train  a  powerful  and  subtle  mind,  are  equal  to  Greek, 
Latin,  and  mathematics.  The  descriptive  and  the 
experimental  sciences  cannot  do  it — or  at  least  they 
have  not  done  it — and  the  same  is  true  of  the  newer 
subjects  of  study  that  are  humorously,  if  roughly, 
classified  together  as  the  "unnatural  sciences" — 
economics,  sociology,  and  the  like. 

Through  long  centuries  of  educational  use  Greek, 
Latin,  and  mathematics  have  acquired  an  educational 
form  that  gives  them  the  qualities  of  a  highly  tem- 
pered and  highly  polished  tool.  It  may  be  that  the 
descriptive  and  the  experimental  sciences,  and  the  so- 
called  "  unnatural  sciences  "  as  well,  will  one  day  ac- 

345 


346  75  AMERICAN 

quire  the  same  attributes.  It  suffices  for  the  present 
argument  to  take  note  of  the  fact  that  as  yet  they 
have  not  done  so. 

The  use  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics  in  the 
higher  education  of  America  is  declining.  In  a  few 
years  it  will  be  as  rare  for  a  student  to  know  Greek 
as  to-day  it  is  for  him  to  know  Hebrew;  and  it  may 
not  take  more  than  a  generation  or  two  for  Latin  to 
follow  the  same  course.  How  long  the  higher  reaches 
of  mathematics — those  noble  and  inviting  reaches  in 
which  philosophy,  poetry,  and  imagination  combine 
to  play  with  the  intricacies  of  space  and  the  notations 
of  time — will  continue  to  find  extensive  educational  use 
is  also  a  question. 

The  belief  that  mathematics  will  always  be  pursued 
for  its  practical  value  is  groundless.  The  modern 
architect,  and  even  the  modern  engineer,  hires  his 
mathematician  and  no  longer  deigns  to  know  the 
subject  himself.  Counting  machines  and  various  sim- 
ilar mechanisms  are  invading  the  province  of  the  four 
fundamental  rules.  It  is  plain  that  some  stronger 
reason  than  practicality  will  have  to  be  found  for  the 
general  study  of  mathematics  a  generation  hence. 

It  becomes,  therefore,  a  very  serious  question  what 
the  educational  instrumentalities  shall  be  that  are  to 
provide  the  next  generation  or  two  with  the  sort  of 
discipline  and  training  that  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathe- 
matics provided  for  our  fathers  and  for  many  of  us. 
The  vague  discussion  of  what  are  called  social  ques- 
tions will  not  discipline  or  train  anyone.  If  history 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IMPROVING?          347 

be  regarded  as  something  quite  independent  of  chro- 
nology and  as  recording  merely  the  results  of  the  opera- 
tion of  economic  law,  then  it,  too,  will  become  of  little 
or  no  educational  value.  Those  who  empty  out  of 
philosophy  its  ancient  and  honorable  content,  and  try 
to  substitute  for  it  a  sort  of  checkered  pavement  of  the 
sciences,  are  engaged  in  agile  exercise,  but  they  are  not 
accomplishing  any  good  either  for  philosophy  or  for 
education. 

It  must  be  said,  therefore,  that  the  higher  education 
of  the  United  States  is  at  present  in  a  condition  where 
it  may  readily  drop  backward  rather  than  improve. 
The  college  student  of  to-day,  and  in  some  cases  even 
the  university  student,  is  permitted  to  sprawl  over  so 
large  and  so  varied  an  area  of  intellectual  interest  that 
he  loses  the  discipline  in  concentration,  in  hard  work, 
and  in  the  mastery  of  some  relatively  small  field  that 
comes  from  pursuing  a  better  and  older  method. 
There  is  just  now,  however,  a  marked  tendency  among 
the  better  colleges  to  aid  and  to  guide  the  student 
toward  concentrating  his  interests  and  his  energies 
upon  a  small  group  of  subjects  that  have  some  common 
centre  of  interest  and  some  well-marked  relationship. 
This  movement  is  a  sound  and  hopeful  one,  and  should 
be  encouraged  and  aided.  The  student  should  follow 
the  group  of  subjects  that  he  chooses  far  enough  to 
carry  him  beyond  their  mere  elements.  No  mind  can 
be  called  really  trained  or  educated  that  has  never  got 
beyond  the  elements  of  anything.  It  is  necessary  for 
many  of  us  to  remain  satisfied  with  a  knowledge  of  the 


348  IS  AMERICAN 

elements  of  most  things,  but  there  should  be  some 
small  part  of  the  field  of  knowledge  in  which  we  have 
gone  far  past  the  elements  and  have  gained  some 
notion  of  what  the  higher  reaches  of  the  subject  con- 
tain. 

It  may  be  said  that,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  qual- 
ity of  its  product,  higher  education  in  the  United  States 
is  improving  wherever  sound  and  satisfactory  progress 
is  making  to  put  into  the  place  of  the  disappearing 
Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics  some  educational  ma- 
terial that  is  sufficiently  well  organized  and  long  enough 
pursued  to  give  training  in  concentration,  in  applica- 
tion, and  in  genuine  knowledge. 

There  is  marked  improvement,  too,  in  the  manner 
in  which  our  higher  education  is  adapting  itself  to  the 
needs  and  aspirations  of  the  people.  The  colleges, 
and  particularly  the  universities,  are  outgrowing  the 
worship  of  some  of  their  ancient  fetishes.  All  sorts 
of  subjects  that  were  once  frowned  upon  are  now 
found  worthy  of  study  and  of  investigation.  More- 
over, an  institution  of  higher  education  no  longer  con- 
siders it  to  be  proper  to  lock  up  its  buildings,  its  li- 
braries, and  its  laboratories  from  June  until  September. 
The  summer  session,  which  began  as  an  exotic,  has 
been  academically  acclimated,  and  is  now  that  part 
of  the  academic  year  in  which,  at  more  institutions 
than  one,  the  very  best  work  is  done. 

The  same  is  true  of  what  is  known  as  Extension 
Teaching,  which  began  as  a  system  of  more  or  less 
popular  lectures  to  untrained  audiences,  and  in  some 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IMPROVING?          349 

places  still  remains  so.  Where  extension  teaching  is 
best  developed,  however,  it  means  something  quite 
different.  In  such  cases  it  is  genuine  work  of  the 
same  quality  and  quantity  as  that  given  in  the  so- 
called  regular  classes,  but  carried  on  at  such  hours 
and  in  such  places  that  those  who  have  to  earn  their 
living  can  attend.  Wherever  the  same  standards  of 
admission  and  examination  are  required,  extension 
teaching  is  just  as  good  as  any  other  kind  of  teaching, 
and  will  be  merged  sooner  or  later  in  the  so-called  reg- 
ular work. 

The  problem  of  vocational  training  is  not  so  hard 
in  the  field  of  higher  education  as  it  is  in  that  of  sec- 
ondary education.  In  higher  education  it  is  easy  to 
indicate  what  the  aim  and  the  standard  of  vocational 
training  should  be.  The  best  universities  agree  that 
not  less  than  two  years  of  work  in  a  college  of  liberal 
arts  and  sciences  is  the  minimum  that  will  give  the 
maturity  and  accomplishment  necessary  for  admission 
to  a  really  first-class  school  of  law,  medicine,  engineer- 
ing, architecture,  or  teaching.  If  the  student  is  able 
to  pursue  an  even  longer  college  course,  so  much  the 
better,  provided  he  makes  thoroughly  good  use  of  his 
rare  advantage  and  opportunity. 

In  training  in  law,  in  medicine,  in  engineering,  in 
architecture,  and  in  teaching,  higher  education  in  the 
United  States  is  improving  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
That  is  the  case  not  only  because  the  best  professional 
schools  have  enforced  a  higher  standard  of  admission, 
but  because  there  has  grown  up  in  the  United  States 


350  IS  AMERICAN 

a  competent  body  of  trained  scholars  in  the  various 
professions  who  are  distinct  from  the  successful  prac- 
titioners. 

Practical  knowledge  and  experience  are,  of  course, 
of  great  value  to  a  teacher  in  a  vocational  or  profes- 
sional school;  but  mere  practical  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience, without  scholarship,  originality,  power  to 
conduct  and  to  stimulate  research,  and  without  skill 
in  teaching,  will  no  longer  suffice.  A  young  American 
who  knows  how  to  choose  and  who  takes  full  advan- 
tage of  his  choice  can  now  obtain  at  least  as  good  a 
professional  education  in  the  United  States  as  he  can 
anywhere  else  in  the  world,  and  in  some  subjects  a 
better  one  than  he  can  get  anywhere  else. 

The  two  or  three  best  American  schools  of  law  have 
no  equals  in  Europe.  Our  best  schools  of  medicine 
have  no  superiors  in  Europe,  although  there  are  three 
or  four  European  cities  that  have  better  chances  for 
clinical  observation  and  study  than  any  cities  in  this 
country.  Our  three  or  four  best  schools  of  engineer- 
ing, if  not  so  good  as  the  best  in  France,  Germany,  and 
Italy,  certainly  press  them  very  hard  indeed.  The 
best  American  schools  of  architecture,  although  or- 
ganized on  a  sounder  and  broader  basis  than  any  of 
the  European  schools,  cannot  yet  rival  in  prestige 
and  in  influence  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris. 
The  best  American  school  of  education  is  in  a  class 
quite  by  itself,  and  at  a  half  dozen  universities  schools 
of  similar  type  are  rapidly  coming  forward  to  take 
places  in  the  front  rank. 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IMPROVING?          351 

There  is  a  mistaken  notion  that  scholarly  research 
is  more  esteemed  and  more  eagerly  pursued  on  the 
continent  of  Europe  than  in  the  United  States.  That 
was  true  until  a  decade  or  two  ago.  At  present, 
however,  the  scholarly  investigation  going  forward  in 
America  equals  in  amount  and  in  quality  that  which 
is  going  forward  in  any  other  country. 

The  quality  of  the  American  college  and  university 
professor  is  in  some  respects  not  so  good  as  it  was  a 
generation  ago,  but  in  other  respects  it  is  much  better. 
Forty  years  ago  you  could  count  on  the  fingers  of  one 
hand  those  Americans  who  had  made  an  international 
reputation  of  any  sort  for  scholarly  endeavor;  to-day 
the  number  of  such  Americans  is  very  considerable. 
The  price  that  has  been  paid  for  that  gain,  calculated 
in  terms  of  personality,  of  breadth  of  view,  of  deep 
human  sympathy,  and  of  genuine  wisdom,  has  been 
rather  high.  It  is  my  own  hope  that  this  phenomenon 
is,  however,  only  temporary. 

Too  many  American  college  and  university  teachers 
of  to-day  are  proselyters  for  some  particular  philosophy 
of  life.  They  are  not  content  to  teach,  but  feel  under 
the  obligation  to  preach  as  well.  To  the  discriminat- 
ing student  such  preaching  of  social  and  political  doc- 
trine does  little  harm,  because  he  takes  it  only  at  its 
proper  value.  The  less  discriminating  student,  how- 
ever, and  particularly  the  women  students  of  to-day, 
are  sadly  imposed  upon  by  lecture-room  talk  of  that 
sort.  The  good  teacher  understands  the  distinction 
between  what  he  himself  knows  and  believes  and  what 


352  IS  AMERICAN 

it  is  wise  and  proper  for  him  to  teach  the  young  and 
immature  student.  The  poor  teacher,  on  the  other 
hand,  mixes  all  these  things  up  together. 

Moreover,  the  college  and  university  teacher  suffers 
from  lack  of  criticism  and  supervision.  I  do  not  mean 
that  sort  of  criticism  and  supervision  which  would 
be  appropriate  in  a  factory  or  in  a  counting-house,  but 
that  criticism  and  supervision  which,  particularly  at 
the  outset  of  an  academic  career,  can  do  so  much  to 
guide,  to  strengthen,  and  to  develop  a  teacher's  powers 
and  effectiveness.  Our  public  school  systems  abound 
in  illustrations  of  the  supervision  that  I  have  in  mind, 
but  in  the  colleges  and  universities  nothing  of  the  kind 
exists.  A  more  or  less  vague  notion  prevails  that 
Mr.  So-and-So  is  a  good  teacher  or  a  poor  teacher,  as 
the  case  may  be,  and  that  notion  is  based  largely  on 
what  his  students  say  about  him.  His  own  immediate 
colleagues  base  their  judgment  of  him,  not  upon  what 
he  does  in  the  class-room,  for  they  have  no  knowledge 
of  that,  but  upon  his  personal  characteristics,  his  pub- 
lished work,  and  his  general  reputation  for  scholarship. 
It  is  for  those  reasons  that  a  man  may  be  a  most  ad- 
mirable scholar,  and  yet  a  wretched  teacher  of  the 
young,  without  that  fact  being  pointed  out  to  him  or 
even  discovered  through  a  long  academic  career. 

It  may  fairly  be  said,  therefore,  that,  in  spite  of  the 
obvious  grounds  of  criticism,  higher  education  is  im- 
proving in  the  United  States.  The  fact  is,  we  expect 
more  of  higher  education  than  ever  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  Our  American  democracy  is  im- 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IMPROVING?          353 

patient  to  meet  its  needs,  and  to  meet  them  quickly 
is  no  easy  matter.  The  problem  before  those  who 
are  charged  with  the  care  and  oversight  of  American 
higher  education  is  to  preserve  its  standards  and  its 
ideals  while  meeting  to  the  full  the  demands  of  a  new 
and  increasingly  complicated  economic  and  social  life. 


XXI 
THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION 


An  address  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  installation  of 

Dr.  Richard  Eddy  Sykes  as  president  of  St.  Lawrence 

University,  Canton,  New  York,  June  7,  1919 


THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION 


We  are  gathered  today  at  one  of  the  power  houses 
of  American  character  and  American  life.  It  is  from 
this  centre,  and  from  scores  of  others  like  it  scattered 
over  our  hills  and  valleys  from  Maine  to  California 
and  through  our  cities  and  towns  from  Canada  to  the 
Gulf,  that  there  go  out  year  by  year  those  streams  of 
influence  and  of  instruction  that  have  contributed  so 
powerfully  to  make  the  American  people  what  they 
are.  Each  one  of  these  institutions  is  an  act  of  faith. 
Each  one  of  them  has  come  into  being  because  there 
have  been  men  and  women  of  vision  with  the  spirit 
of  generous  sacrifice,  who  have  believed  that  man- 
kind could  reach  still  greater  heights  of  accomplish- 
ment and  achievement,  still  higher  measures  of  satis- 
faction and  happiness,  and  still  larger  capacities  for 
unselfishness  and  service.  The  American  college  is 
not  built  upon  knowledge;  it  is  built  upon  faith. 
Knowledge  is  its  instrument,  but  faitl\  is  its  motive 
power. 

To-day  we  hail  a  new  captain  in  the  Army  of  Faith 
in  the  republic,  as  he  takes  his  appointed  place  and 
sets  his  hand  to  the  grave  tasks  of  to-morrow.  These 
captains  in  the  Army  of  Faith  in  the  republic  are  a 

357 


358          THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION 

characteristic  product  of  American  life  and  of  Ameri- 
can opportunity.  Europe,  although  many  centuries 
older  than  we  in  educational  endeavor  and  in  educa- 
tional experience,  is  still  searching  for  ways  and 
means  to  train  and  to  make  use  of  such  officers.  Gov- 
ernment officials  cannot  occupy  quite  the  same  place 
as  do  these  captains,  chosen  by  their  fellows  and  asso- 
ciates to  the  difficult  and  delicate  task  of  leadership 
in  a  nation  of  free  men.  Rules  and  formulas  cannot 
be  devised  to  produce  them.  They  must  themselves 
be  the  offspring  of  our  intellectual  life  and  our  intellec- 
tual endeavor,  and  they  must  stand  or  fall  by  their 
individual  capacity,  their  individual  competence,  and 
their  individual  achievement.  The  history  of  American 
higher  education  for  well-nigh  a  century  is  written 
largely  in  terms  of  the  personalities,  the  strivings,  and 
the  accomplishments  of  these  captains.  Strike  from 
our  record  the  names  of  Wayland  of  Brown,  Mark 
Hopkins  of  Williams,  Seelye  of  Amherst,  Tappan  and 
Angell  of  Michigan,  Anderson  of  Rochester,  White  of 
Cornell,  Barnard  of  Columbia,  McCosh  of  Princeton, 
Oilman  of  Johns  Hopkins,  Eliot  of  Harvard,  and  Har- 
per of  Chicago,  and  the  history  of  American  higher 
education  would  be  meaningless. 

The  post  to  which  you,  sir,  have  been  chosen  is  one 
of  leadership  but  not  of  command.  You  will  not  be 
able,  and  if  able  you  would  not  wish,  to  impose  your 
own  will  upon  your  associates.  You  will,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  the  centre  point  for  consultations  and  for  the 
free  meeting  of  sincere  minds,  in  order  that  policies 


TEE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION         359 

may  be  worked  out  and  plans  adopted  to  represent 
in  fullest  fashion  the  life  and  the  purpose  of  this  uni- 
versity. Your  task  is  an  institutional  one,  not  a  per- 
sonal one.  It  is  to  give  vitality  and  force  and,  when 
opportunity  serves,  to  give  voice  to  the  hopes  and  the 
ideals  of  St.  Lawrence  University.  If  my  own  years  of 
experience  in  an  office  of  similar  character  may  serve 
as  guide,  I  should  say,  using  the  language  of  the  politi- 
cal life  of  Great  Britain,  that  your  duties  would  be 
those  of  a  Prime  Minister  holding  the  portfolios  of 
finance  and  of  foreign  affairs.  You  will  have  to  guide 
and  to  counsel  both  the  teaching  staff  and  the  govern- 
ing body  of  the  corporation  in  adjusting  means  to 
ends,  and  you  will  have  to  oversee  and  largely  to  under- 
take the  representation  of  the  university  and  the  ex- 
tension of  its  influence  beyond  the  limits  of  its  home 
town. 

I  recall  a  striking  story  told  by  Mr.  Gladstone  which 
illustrates  the  sort  of  sagacity  which  gives  to  institu- 
tions, built  by  the  life  of  the  spirit,  both  permanence 
and  force.  Shortly  before  the  meeting  of  the  Vatican 
Council,  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  a  powerful  figure  in  the 
life  of  England,  was  received  in  audience  of  Pope 
Pius  IX.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation  between 
these  two  great  men  Mr.  Gladstone  asked  His  Holiness 
to  what  human  agency  or  policy,  if  any,  he  attributed 
the  permanence  and  the  vitality  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  which  had  seen  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations, 
the  upbuilding  and  the  overturning  of  dynasties,  the 
discovery  and  settlement  of  new  continents,  and  lit- 


360          THE  COLLEGES  AND  TEE  NATION 

erally  stupendous  changes  in  the  mental  and  moral 
life  of  men.  Amidst  all  this  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  had  maintained  its  continuous  life  through 
many  centuries,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  earnestly  pressed 
his  question  as  to  how  this  had  been  possible.  The 
answer  of  Pope  Pius  IX  was  this :  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  owes  its  permanence  and  its  vitality  amidst 
all  these  striking  changes  to  three  things:  the  first  of 
these  is  consultation;  the  second  is  consultation;  the 
third  is  consultation. 

This  story  teaches  a  highly  practical  lesson  to  every- 
one charged  with  the  oversight  and  the  care  of  an  in- 
stitution which  springs  from  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Its 
acts  and  its  policies  must  be  truly  institutional  and  not 
merely  individual  if  they  are  to  continue  in  power 
and  in  influence.  So  it  is  the  task  of  each  captain  in 
the  Army  of  Faith  in  the  republic  to  make  use  of  con- 
sultation as  a  method  and  an  instrument  in  the  formula- 
tion of  policies  and  in  the  expression  of  the  institution's 
life.  Through  consultation  lies  the  path  of  safety 
and  of  wisdom  in  the  life  of  a  university  as  in  that  of 
a  church  or  a  state. 

II 

For  what  purpose  is  our  Army  of  Faith  in  the  re- 
public recruited  ?  Why  do  we  so  eagerly  hail  its 
marching  battalions,  cheer  its  flags,  and  honor  its  heroes  ? 
The  answers  to  these  questions  reveal  the  stirrings  and 
the  strivings  in  our  American  life. 

He  is  blind  indeed  who  cannot  see  the  unrest  and 


THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION          361 

the  dissatisfaction  that  are  abroad  in  the  land.  In  the 
face  of  the  epoch-marking  achievements  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  since  they  became  a  nation,  in  the  face  of 
the  increasing  acceptance  by  other  peoples  of  the 
principles  upon  which  the  American  Republic  is  built, 
there  are  voices  too  numerous  and  too  strident  to  be 
unheard  or  neglected  who  cry  out  in  protest  against 
America  and  in  dissatisfaction  with  American  prin- 
ciples and  American  ideals.  These  unhappy  persons 
are  constantly  casting  about  for  some  new  weapon  of 
destruction  with  which  to  break  down  American  ac- 
complishment, in  order  to  substitute  for  it  some  old 
and  usually  some  mad  form  of  political  and  social 
experimentation.  Men  and  women  who  are  so  minded 
are  usually  mentally  unbalanced,  but  whether  mentally 
unbalanced  or  not  they  are  so  consumed  by  egotism 
and  vanity  as  to  fancy  that  a  poor  product  of  their 
own  emotional  life  can  take  the  place  of  the  whole  of 
human  experience  and  the  whole  of  human  endeavor. 
What  has  really  happened  to  these  people  is  that  they 
have  lost  their  faith  and  they  are  once  more  striving 
in  the  impossible  attempt  to  make  the  very  limited 
knowledge  of  an  individual  do  duty  for  the  faith  of  a 
race.  These  persons  are  not  willing  to  learn  by  ex- 
perience, but  perhaps  the  familiar  story  of  St.  Augus- 
tine might  temper  the  ardor  of  their  self-assurance. 
It  is  related  of  St.  Augustine  that  while  walking  one 
day  upon  the  shore  at  Ostia,  meditating  upon  the  in- 
tellectual doubts  that  withheld  him  from  embracing 
Christianity,  he  suddenly  perceived  a  child  that  with 


362          THE  COLLEGES  AND  TEE  NATION 

a  shell  was  ladling  the  waters  of  the  sea  into  a  hole  in 
the  sand.  "What  are  you  doing,  my  child?"  asked 
the  saint.  "I  am  emptying  the  ocean,"  was  the 
reply,  "into  this  hole."  "That  is  impossible."  "Not 
more  impossible  than  for  you  to  pour  the  universe  into 
your  intellect,"  said  the  child  and  vanished. 

For  civilization  to  continue  and  to  advance,  the 
knowledge  of  the  individual  must  rest  upon  the  experi- 
ence and  the  faith  of  the  race.  This  experience  and 
this  faith  point  with  convincing  clearness  to  individual 
liberty  and  the  right  of  individual  self-determination 
as  the  essential  elements  in  a  really  advancing  and 
constructive  political,  social,  and  industrial  life.  For 
liberty  there  is  no  possible  substitute.  Of  oppor- 
tunity there  can  be  no  successful  imitation.  Each 
human  being,  the  seat  of  an  immortal  soul,  has  his  own 
place  in  the  world  and  is  entitled  to  his  own  chance 
to  make  the  most  of  himself.  What  he  justly  gains 
and  saves  is  rightly  his  own,  and  private  property, 
which  alone  makes  possible  industry,  trade,  commerce, 
and  finance  as  we  know  them,  is  a  part  of  liberty  it- 
self. The  attempt  to  destroy  the  institution  of  private 
property  is  as  reactionary  an  undertaking  as  can  well 
be  imagined.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  proposal  to 
go  back  to  the  very  beginnings  of  all  civilization,  and 
to  try  to  compel  the  race  to  climb  up  again  the  hills 
and  the  mountains  over  which  the  procession  of  prog- 
ress has  been  so  painfully  passing  for  centuries.  What 
we  need  is  more,  and  more  widely  distributed,  property 


THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION          363 

rather  than  less.  The  aim  of  a  free  state  is  to  make 
every  citizen  a  capitalist  in  the  sense  that  it  will  give 
every  citizen  an  opportunity  to  work,  to  save,  and  to 
employ  his  savings  as  he  will.  This  is  what  we  mean 
by  liberty  under  law.  This  is  the  finest  and  highest 
ideal  of  government.  To  overthrow  it,  to  weaken  it, 
or  to  cast  discredit  upon  it,  is  not  progress  but  back- 
ward revolution. 

ill 

Colleges  and  universities  are  places  where  youth  are 
assembled  for  training  and  for  instruction  in  the  truth 
and  in  high  standards  of  appreciation  and  of  action. 
The  truth  is  not,  as  some  academic  wit  has  said,  any 
lie  that  works,  but  something  which  is  apprehended 
and  comprehended  by  those  who  are  able  to  draw  a 
distinction  between  the  right  and  the  wrong,  the  true 
and  the  false.  Those  for  whom  there  is  no  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong  but  expediency,  naturally 
can  find  no  fixed  distinction  between  truth  and  false- 
hood. Such  are  not  safe  or  helpful  teachers  and  guides. 
They  have  themselves  something  yet  to  learn  before 
they  may  undertake  to  instruct  others. 

Open-mindedness  is  characteristic  of  the  cultivated 
man,  but  by  open-mindedness  is  not  meant  a  mind 
that  is  open  at  both  ends.  All  happenings  are  not 
matters  of  indifference,  and  all  acts  are  not  equally 
important  or  equally  valuable.  There  are  some  things 
which  rational  and  cultivated  men  exclude  from  dis- 


364          THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION 

cussion  as  long  since  definitely  determined.  The  indi- 
vidual's right  to  self-determination,  for  example,  is 
not  held  to  extend  to  the  right  to  commit  suicide.  So 
is  it  with  the  state.  Policies  and  methods  of  govern- 
ment are  fit  subject  for  discussion  and  for  difference 
of  opinion,  but  the  question  as  to  whether  there  shall 
be  a  government  to  maintain  order,  to  protect  liberty, 
and  to  assure  justice  between  man  and  man,  is  no  more 
debatable  than  is  the  right  of  the  individual  to  commit 
suicide. 

It  is  well  to  fix  some  of  these  fundamental  facts  in 
our  minds,  and  when  this  is  done  we  can  better  under- 
stand the  importance  of  the  great  Army  of  Faith  in 
the  republic  and  the  place  which  the  captains  in  that 
army  are  called  to  occupy  in  the  nation's  life.  These 
captains  are  not  appointed  to  tear  down  but  to  build 
up.  They  are  not  selected  to  turn  back  the  course  of 
progress  but  to  aid  in  pointing  the  way  for  new  ad- 
vance. 

The  American  people  have  a  faith  in  education  that 
is  both  sublime  and  pathetic.  It  is  sublime  because  it 
reveals  so  fine  a  spirit  and  so  noble  a  purpose.  It  is 
pathetic  in  that  it  depends  upon  frail  and  feeble  human 
instruments  for  its  accomplishment.  If  the  schools 
and  colleges  of  the  country  were  so  to  conduct  them- 
selves as  to  shake  the  nation's  faith  in  them  and  in 
education,  the  resulting  crash  would  be  heard  all  round 
the  world.  Cynicism  would  displace  confidence,  faith 
would  give  way  to  despair.  But  the  schools  and  col- 


THE  COLLEGES  AND  THE  NATION          365 

leges  will  not  fail.  They  have  their  points  of  weak- 
ness and  they  have  had  their  unfortunate  representa- 
tives and  spokesmen.  But,  on  the  whole,  and  in  over- 
whelming majority,  they  have  been  firm  in  the  faith 
and  worthy  of  the  confidence  which  the  American 
people  have  so  richly  bestowed  upon  them. 


XXII 
EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Association  of  Colleges  and 

Preparatory  Schools  of  the  Middle  States  and  Maryland 

at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  November  29,  1918 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

The  name  of  Lord  Melbourne  is  not  to  be  found  in 
any  of  the  histories  of  philosophy,  but  he  was  a  good 
deal  of  a  philosopher  none  the  less.  It  was  Lord  Mel- 
bourne who  said  that  it  is  tiresome  to  discuss  educa- 
tion, tiresome  to  educate,  and  tiresome  to  be  educated. 
Even  one  whose  enthusiasm  is  not  dampened  after 
nearly  forty  years  spent  in  the  work  of  teaching  and 
its  oversight  may  smile  in  appreciative  understanding 
of  Lord  Melbourne's  cynicism.  Whether  to  discuss 
education  be  tiresome  or  not,  it  is  something  which 
must  just  now  be  done,  and  something  for  which  fatigue, 
if  anticipated,  must  be  endured. 

Any  one  of  imitative  instincts  and  some  acquaint- 
ance with  letters  might  well  hesitate  at  the  rich  choice 
of  models  offered  him  for  procedure  in  discussing  many 
aspects  of  the  education  of  to-day.  He  might,  for 
example,  undertake  to  impale  some  present-day  school- 
room theories  and  practices  on  a  spear  made  in  the 
shape  of  one  of  Dr.  Johnson's  crushing  retorts;  or  he 
might  attempt  the  wit  and  sarcasm  of  Dean  Swift, 
or  the  self-satisfied  and  highly  amusing,  if  painfully 
inconsequent,  argumentation  of  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw. 
Then  there  is  the  vehement  and  intolerant  endlessness 
of  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  whose  zeal  for  the  lengthy  discus- 

369 


370  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

sion  of  education  appears  to  be  in  inverse  ratio  to  his 
understanding  of  its  chief  purpose.  Aristophanes, 
provided  that  his  name,  date,  and  place  in  literature 
have  not  wholly  escaped  attention,  might  suggest  a 
yet  different  and  most  satisfactory  method  of  present- 
ing to  an  amused  and  interested  world  the  foibles  and 
follies  of  much  that  wears  education's  mask.  Such  a 
treatment  as  that,  however,  would  call  for  a  high 
type  of  genius  and  literary  skill.  No  modern  Aris- 
tophanes has  as  yet  revealed  himself. 


The  war  has  distinctly  helped  us.  It  has  killed  other 
things  than  human  beings,  and  it  has  burnt  up  other 
things  than  towns,  libraries,  and  churches.  It  has  laid 
to  rest  some  rather  wide-spread  illusions,  and  it  has 
burnt  up  many  sources  and  causes  of  intellectual, 
moral,  and  social  waste.  It  has  shortened  by  many 
years,  perhaps  by  a  generation,  the  path  of  progress 
to  clearer,  sounder,  and  more  constructive  thinking  as 
to  education,  its  processes,  and  its  aims,  than  that 
which  has  occupied  the  centre  of  the  stage  for  some 
dozen  years  past.  We  have  been  living  in  an  era  of 
reaction  that  has  masqueraded  as  progress,  and  we 
have  been  witnessing  energetic  acts  of  destruction 
whose  agents  sang  the  songs  and  spoke  the  language 
of  those  who  build.  Chatter  about  education  has 
been  so  prevalent  that  one  has  often  had  to  wonder 
whether  interest  in  real  education  and  capacity  for 
clear  thinking  concerning  it  had  not  entirely  surren- 
dered the  field  to  the  poisonous  fumes  of  an  irritant  gas. 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  371 

Part  of  what  we  have  been  living  through  and  put- 
ting up  with  as  best  we  could,  has  been  due  to  a  false 
psychology  and  part  to  a  crude  economics.  The  moral 
and  spiritual  values  have  been  ground  between  the 
upper  and  nether  millstones  of  a  psychology  without 
a  soul  and  an  economics  with  no  vision  beyond  material 
gain.  Most  of  the  old  and  exploded  fallacies  of  by- 
gone centuries  have  been  solemnly  paraded  before  us 
in  the  trappings  of  new  and  highly  important  discov- 
eries. We  have  been  asked  to  doff  our  hats  in  salute 
to  illusions  of  one  sort  or  another  that  the  world  of 
intelligence  found  good  reason  to  class  as  such  long 
ago.  Discipline  was  solemnly  pronounced  to  be  not 
only  unnecessary,  but  impossible,  although  a  hundred 
little  disciplines  are  right  enough.  A  general  educa- 
tion or  training — which  goes  back  to  the  time  when 
Socrates  pointed  out  to  Hippocrates  the  distinction 
between  eirl  IlaiSefo  and  eirl  Texyg — has  been  shouldered 
aside,  not  because  it  has  not  been  justified  by  cen- 
turies of  experience  but  because  it  is  not  deemed  suf- 
ficiently materialistic  or  gain-producing  to  be  recog- 
nized as  part  of  an  educational  theory  that  is  strictly 
up  to  date.  According  to  this  newest  philosophy, 
no  such  admirable  virtue  as  thrift,  for  example,  could 
be  taught,  but  only  the  saving  of  ten-cent  pieces  or 
of  dollar  bills,  or  possibly  of  Liberty  Bonds,  as  separate 
arts  or  vocations  I  Industry,  honesty,  loyalty,  charity, 
and  truthfulness  have  been  ingenuously  referred  to 
as  vague  notions  or  catch-words  that  are  very  apt  to 
delude  the  unwary — the  unwary  being  probably  the 


372  EDUCATION  AFTER  TEE  WAR 

unselfish.  A  sense  of  humor  or  a  flash  of  common 
sense,  had  either  been  present,  might  have  saved  us 
from  being  obliged  to  listen  to  all  this  and  to  contem- 
plate the  ideal  world  as  made  up  of  highly  competent 
apple-polishers  and  pencil-sharpeners  early  trained 
to  their  engrossing  tasks,  and  vocationally  guided  to 
be  loyal  and  charitable  to  themselves  alone. 

What  a  sense  of  humor  or  a  flash  of  common  sense 
did  not  intervene  to  accomplish,  the  war  has  done. 
At  a  critical  moment  for  the  history  of  education  in 
the  United  States  the  German  people  found  occasion 
to  reveal  themselves  to  an  astonished  world  as  the 
apostles  and  representatives  of  just  this  type  of  phi- 
losophy of  education  and  of  life.  Psychology  without 
a  soul  has  been  a  favorite  German  industry  for  a  long 
time,  and  organization  for  material  gain  has  been  the 
ruling  thought  of  the  German  people  for  quite  thirty 
years.  On  this  form  of  psychology  and  on  this  form 
of  economics  as  a  foundation  the  Germans  erected 
their  superstructure  of  military  autocracy,  of  insolent 
aggression,  and  of  lust  for  world  domination.  With 
these  they  instantly  challenged  the  rest  of  the  world 
to  combat  for  its  mastery.  For  months,  even  for  years, 
the  issue  hung  uncertainly  in  the  balance;  but  at  last 
the  nations  that  had  not  surrendered  their  souls,  the 
nations  that  had  not  cast  aside  their  moral  and  spiritual 
ideals  to  bow  down  before  the  idol  of  material  gain, 
the  nations  that  had  not  put  efficiency  above  freedom, 
brought  down  this  proud  and  boasting  Teutonic  struc- 
ture in  the  dust.  Nothing  in  history  that  aimed  so 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  373 

high  has  ever  fallen  so  low,  and  the  effect  upon  the 
world's  education  ought  to  be,  must  be,  instant  and 
overwhelming.  We  ought  now  to  be  spared,  at  least 
for  a  time,  the  vexing  spectacle  of  men  in  places  of 
authority  in  education  and  in  letters  who  spend  their 
time  standing  in  front  of  the  convex  mirror  of  egotism 
thinking  that  what  they  see  reflected  in  it  is  a  real 
world  and  their  own  exact  relation  to  it. 

The  war  has  taught  the  lesson  that  the  proper  place 
of  efficiency  is  as  the  servant  of  a  moral  ideal,  and  that 
efficiency  apart  from  a  moral  ideal  is  an  evil  and  a 
wicked  instrument  which  in  the  end  can  accomplish 
only  disaster.  Belgium  and  Serbia,  measured  by  Teu- 
tonic standards,  were  inefficient;  France  was  not  only 
inefficient  but  decadent;  Great  Britain  was  not  only 
inefficient  but  on  the  point  of  disruption;  and  America 
was  not  only  inefficient  but  hopelessly  given  over  to 
pleasure  and  to  gain.  True  it  is  that  no  one  of  these 
nations  had  kept  its  ideals  as  clear  and  as  sharply 
defined  as  it  should  have  done;  but  the  ideals  were 
there  none  the  less.  Long  experience  of  freedom  had 
made  safe  and  well-protected  resting-places  for  those 
aims  and  purposes  and  convictions  which  have  always 
shaped,  and  will  always  shape,  the  upward  movement 
of  men.  Therefore  it  was  that  when  the  attack  was 
made  these  ideals  sprang  from  their  hiding-places 
and  took  command  of  the  apparently  unorganized 
and  inefficient  nations.  Meanwhile,  organized  effi- 
ciency, immoral  and  brutal,  was  hammering  at  their 
doors.  The  free  nations  held  the  enemy  until  their 


374  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

ideals  could  call  their  own  efficiency  and  power  of 
organization  into  play  as  servants,  and  when  that  had 
been  accomplished  the  end  was  in  sight.  That  end 
has  now  come  with  a  suddenness  and  a  completeness 
that  no  one  would  have  dared  foretell. 

When  we  turn  from  the  war  to  its  lessons  for  educa- 
tion, we  not  only  miss  the  point  entirely  but  we  make 
a  criminal  blunder  if  we  infer  that  the  war  teaches  us 
to  imitate  Germany  in  any  particular.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  war  teaches  us  to  avoid  Germany  and  to 
cling  to  those  principles  and  purposes  that  have  made 
France  and  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
Our  American  common  sense  had  protected  us  from 
many  of  the  ill  effects  that  would  have  followed  the 
more  general  adoption  of  ;he  philosophy  of  education 
which  was  being  urged  upon  us,  and  which  had  found 
many  votaries  wherever  teachers  are  trained  or  dis- 
cuss their  training.  It  is  time  now  to  consider  how 
we  can  best  move  forward  to  the  re-establishment  of 
truer  values  and  sounder  processes  in  American  edu- 
cation. 

The  first  step  is  to  ask  again,  and  in  terms  of  present- 
day  experience,  what  may  be  the  meaning  of  education, 
and  what  knowledge  is  of  most  worth.  If  we  would 
hearken  to  those  who  have  just  now  been  urgently 
asking  to  guide  us,  we  should  have  to  say  that  educa- 
tion is  apparently  the  art  of  conducting  the  human 
mind  from  an  infantile  void  to  an  adolescent  vacuum, 
emphasis  being  laid  upon  self-interest  while  the  tran- 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  375 

sition  is  going  on.  Perhaps,  however,  we  should  do 
better  to  insist  that  education  is  a  process  of  body- 
building, spirit-building,  and  institution-building,  in 
which  process  skilful  and  well-interpreted  use  is  made 
of  the  recorded  experience  of  the  human  race,  of  the 
capacities,  tastes,  and  ambitions  of  the  individual, 
and  of  the  problems  and  circumstances  of  the  world 
in  which  he  at  the  moment  lives.  The  purpose  of 
this  body-building,  spirit-building,  and  institution- 
building  is  not  simply  to  strengthen  and  perpetuate 
what  others  have  found  to  be  useful  and  good,  but 
rather  by  building  upon  that  to  carry  both  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  race  farther  forward  in  their  progress 
toward  fuller  self-expression  and  more  complete  self- 
realization.  To  attempt  to  turn  education  into  a 
merely  mechanical  process,  with  a  purely  gainful  end, 
is  nothing  short  of  treason  to  the  highest,  most  up- 
lifting, and  most  enduring  human  interests. 

So  soon  as  we  fix  clearly  in  our  own  minds  the 
meaning  of  education,  and  not  until  then,  we  are  in 
position  to  answer  the  question  as  to  what  knowledge 
is  of  most  worth.  We  can  then  see  that  that  knowledge 
is  of  most  worth  which  best  furnishes  and  disciplines 
the  human  spirit,  which  best  nourishes  and  strengthens 
the  human  body,  and  which  best  contributes  to  an 
understanding  and  improvement  of  human  institu- 
tions. Given  these  standards,  the  process  of  apply- 
ing them  becomes  one  of  good  judgment  and  practical 
sagacity. 

Regarding  man  in  his  capacity  as  a  self-directing 


376  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

individual,  there  are  three  fundamental  aspects  of 
civilization  that  have  continuing  and  permanent 
significance.  To  each  of  these  three  aspects  massive 
contributions  were  made  by  the  ancient  Greeks,  who 
were  the  first  to  distinguish  and  to  recognize  them,  as 
well  as  to  give  them  their  names,  and  massive  contri- 
butions have  been  made  by  all  that  vast  human  ex- 
perience which  lies  between  the  time  of  the  Greeks 
and  our  own  time.  These  fundamental  aspects  are 
Ethics,  the  doctrine  of  conduct  and  service;  Economics, 
the  doctrine  of  gainful  occupation;  and  Politics,  the 
doctrine  of  reconciliation  between  the  two  and  of 
living  together  in  harmony  and  helpfulness. 

These  are  the  three  subjects  which  must  lie  at  the 
heart  of  an  effective  education  which  has  learned  the 
lessons  of  the  war.  To  these  all  other  forms  of  instruc- 
tion are  either  introductory  and  ancillary,  or  comple- 
mentary and  interpretative.  Literature,  history,  art, 
and  philosophy  will  continue  to  preside  over  them  all, 
and  to  offer  the  largest  and  most  inviting  opportunity 
for  the  rarest  and  best-furnished  spirits  unforgetably 
to  serve  their  kind.  One  Shakespeare,  one  Gibbon, 
one  Michael  Angelo,  one  Aristotle,  are  worth  a  thou- 
sand years  of  human  waiting  and  human  travail. 

The  doctrine  of  conduct  and  service  will  include  the 
study  of  both  personal  and  social  ideals,  as  well  as  the 
discipline  and  the  precepts  that  will  promote  their 
accomplishment.  The  doctrine  of  conduct  cannot  be 
one  of  selfishness,  of  greed,  or  of  exploitation  if  it 
be  constantly  combined  with  the  doctrine  of  service. 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  377 

Those  very  qualities  and  characteristics  which  we 
have  lately  been  told  cannot  be  inculcated,  such  as 
loyalty,  charity,  truthfulness,  are  to  be  unceasingly 
enjoined,  taught,  and  exemplified.  The  individual  is 
to  be  made  more  self-regarding  only  that  he  may  have 
more  to  give  in  service.  His  individual  personality 
is  to  be  kept  before  him  as  something  very  precious, 
but  as  something  not  complete  until  it  is  enriched  by 
his  relationships  and  interdependences  with  others. 

The  doctrine  of  gainful  occupation  will  include  both 
the  means  and  the  end  of  activity  for  self-support 
and  self-dependence.  It  will,  when  a  stage  of  ade- 
quate maturity  is  reached,  add  to  the  general  knowl- 
edge and  general  discipline  of  the  individual  that 
special  knowledge  and  special  discipline  which  will 
enable  him  to  relate  himself  to  the  productive  activity 
of  the  world  at  some  specific  and  useful  point  in  some 
definite  and  useful  way;  but  the  steps  toward  the 
achievement  of  this  aim  will  be  constantly  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  a  far  higher  purpose  than  that  of  mere 
gain  or  accumulation.  The  close  relationship  between 
the  doctrine  of  conduct  and  service  and  the  doctrine 
of  gainful  occupation,  will  be  steadily  emphasized 
and  illustrated. 

The  doctrine  of  reconciliation  between  Ethics  and 
Economics  will  include  the  study  of  how  men  have 
attempted  to  find  ways  and  means  of  living  together 
in  harmony  and  helpfulness,  how  far  they  have  suc- 
ceeded, in  what  respects  and  to  what  extent  they  have 
failed,  and  how  they  may  carry  forward  the  great  ex- 


378  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

periment  of  their  own  time  to  still  more  fortunate  re- 
sults by  making  Ethics,  Economics,  and  Politics  not 
three  distinct  and  mutually  exclusive  or  contradictory 
disciplines,  but  rather  three  aspects  of  one  and  the 
same  discipline,  which  is  that  of  human  life,  its  highest 
achievement  and  its  ripest  fruit.  The  study  of  educa- 
tion from  this  view-point  will  put  behind  it  the  German- 
made  psychology  without  a  soul,  and  the  German- 
made  economics  with  nothing  higher  than  gain  as  its 
end. 

'•'  i't  *T'  ft'1';    1 1"!  ''"'•(  /i  '-'At  i     .'-i    '<J^     •'')''••  I  J     '  i  '•  .~~^>.'.' 

The  care  and  protection  of  the  public  health  will 
hereafter  assume  new  importance.  Preventive  medi- 
cine, which  has  made  great  strides  in  recent  years,  is 
only  at  the  beginning  of  its  history.  The  physician 
and  the  nurse  will  shortly  be  looked  upon  as  educa- 
tional factors  quite  as  important  as  the  teacher  him- 
self. Care  for  the  public  health  will  not  content  it- 
self with  the  mere  inspection  of  children  and  youth  in 
school  and  college,  or  with  the  care  and  cure  of  definite 
disease.  It  will  establish  a  relationship  between  home 
conditions,  school  conditions,  and  work  conditions. 
It  will  have  helpful  advice  to  give,  both  general  and 
specific,  as  to  diet  and  exercise,  and  it  will  insist  that 
neither  at  home,  in  school,  nor  at  work  shall  children 
and  adolescent  youth  be  subjected  to  conditions  that 
impair  their  bodies  as  well  as  starve  their  souls. 

There  will  be  much  more  attention  paid  to  the  de- 
termination of  individual  differences  of  taste  and  ca- 
pacity, and  to  making  provision  for  them.  This  is  a 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  379 

point  at  which  a  sound  psychology  can  render  greatly 
increased  service  to  educational  practice.  The  object 
of  this  determination  is  to  prevent  waste  of  effort,  the 
loss  of  opportunity,  and  the  blunting  of  talent  by  try- 
ing to  sharpen  it  upon  the  wrong  whetstone.  The 
different  tastes  and  capacities  of  children  often  reveal 
themselves  with  great  plainness  through  their  differ- 
ent reactions  to  one  and  the  same  study  or  occupation. 
A  danger  to  guard  against  is  lest  waste  be  not  dimin- 
ished but  increased  through  trying  to  determine  defi- 
nitely upon  these  individual  differences  too  soon,  and 
before  the  youth  has  been  brought  in  contact  with 
some  forms  of  intellectual  interest  and  employment 
which  might  well  touch  unsuspected  springs  hidden 
in  his  nature. 

Despite  the  vast  expenditure  of  the  past  fifty  years 
for  equipment  and  teaching  in  the  natural  sciences,  the 
people  at  large,  including  those  secondary  school  and 
college  graduates  who  have  studied  one  or  more  natural 
sciences  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  are  in  practical 
ignorance  of  them.  We  have  succeeded  in  training 
some  eminent  chemists,  physicists,  and  biologists,  but 
we  have  not  made  chemistry,  physics,  and  biology  part 
of  the  mental  furniture  of  persons  who  are  called  edu- 
cated, largely  because  we  have  insisted  upon  going  the 
wrong  way  about  it.  The  popular  American  text- 
books in  chemistry  and  in  physics  are  almost  without 
exception  examples  of  how  those  subjects  should  not 
be  taught,  while  the  popular  text-books  in  biological 
subjects  are  only  a  little  better.  The  best  text-books 


380  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

in  geology  and  astronomy  are  more  wisely  made.  The 
teachers  of  all  these  sciences  have  almost  uniformly 
proceeded  as  if  every  student  who  came  under  their 
influence  was  to  become  a  specialist  in  their  particular 
science.  They  have  mistaken  the  training  of  scien- 
tists for  the  teaching  of  science.  They  have  insisted 
upon  confounding  the  logical  with  the  psychological 
order  in  the  presentation  of  new  material  to  the  youth- 
ful mind,  and  they  have  assumed  that  in  order  to  gain 
a  knowledge  of  one  of  these  sciences  the  individual 
must  travel  over  again  the  road  taken  by  preceding 
generations  but  in  somewhat  symbolic  and  highly 
concentrated  form.  If  these  sciences  are  ever  really 
to  form  part  of  the  mental  furniture  of  our  people, 
they  must  be  taught  not  through  compelling  every 
student  to  follow  painfully  their  experimental  proc- 
esses and  determinations,  but  through  demonstrating 
and  interpreting  established  facts,  thus  bringing  the 
student  to  realize  why  they  are  true  and  how  they 
were  proved,  through  associating  great  discoveries 
and  advances  with  the  names  and  personalities  of 
those  who  have  made  them,  and  through  putting  em- 
phasis upon  the  human  interest,  the  human  relation- 
ship of  that  theoretical  and  practical  knowledge 
which  is  included  in  the  term  natural  science.  The 
academic  teachers  of  these  subjects  are,  however, 
usually  so  wedded  to  their  idols  that  there  does  not 
appear  to  be  much  likelihood  of  a  quick  reform  and  the 
establishment  of  better  methods  of  teaching.  These 
must  wait  upon  a  more  general  appreciation  of  the 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  381 

difference  between  the  method  of  discovery  and  the 
method  of  exposition.  For  admirable  and  persuasive 
examples  of  the  method  of  exposition  one  need  look 
no  further  than  Professor  Huxley's  lecture  to  the 
workingmen  of  Norwich  on  a  piece  of  chalk  or  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall's  lecture  on  magnetism  to  the  teachers 
of  the  primary  schools  of  London. 

Substantially  the  same  thing  may  be  said  about 
instruction  in  foreign  language.  Greek  and  Latin 
have  been  in  large  degree  asphyxiated  by  wholly 
wrong-headed  methods  of  teaching,  and  French  and 
German  are  a  sad  spectacle  to  look  upon.  Intelli- 
gent youths  who  have  spent  three,  four,  and  five  years 
on  the  study  of  one  or  both  of  these  languages,  can 
neither  speak  them  easily  nor  understand  them  readily 
nor  write  them  correctly.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  natural  sciences,  the  reason  is  to  be  found  in  wrong 
methods  of  teaching.  It  is  a  sorry  commentary  as 
to  what  is  going  on  in  our  secondary  schools  and  col- 
leges in  this  respect  to  learn  on  the  best  authority 
that  there  are  now  in  France  at  least  two  hundred  thou- 
sand American  young  men,  who,  after  six  months  of 
military  activity  in  France  and  three  or  four  hours  of 
instruction  a  week  in  the  French  language,  can  carry 
on  a  comfortable  conversation  under  ordinary  condi- 
tions and  circumstances  with  the  mastery  of  a  vocab- 
ulary of  at  least  a  thousand  words.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  an  American  college  graduate  who  has 
studied  French  for  years  is  as  awkward  and  as  non- 
plussed in  a  Paris  drawing-room  as  he  would  be  in 


382  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

the  driver's  seat  of  an  airplane.  There  will  hereafter 
be  marked  impatience  with  the  notion  that  one  may 
spend  an  indefinite  amount  of  time  upon  a  foreign 
language  without  hoping  or  expecting  either  to  speak 
it  easily  or  to  understand  it  comfortably.  The  notion 
that  boys  and  girls  are  to  study  a  foreign  language 
as  an  end  in  itself  or  with  a  view  to  becoming  gram- 
marians or  philologists  must  be  given  up.  The  pur- 
pose in  studying  a  foreign  language  is  to  gain  sufficient 
practical  mastery  of  it  for  use  in  daily  intercourse, 
and  so  to  obtain  some  comprehension  of  the  life,  the 
institutions,  and  the  modes  of  thought  of  the  people 
whose  language  it  is.  French  is  not  only  the  universal 
language  of  diplomacy  but  it  is  the  common  link  be- 
tween educated  men  and  women  the  world  over.  It 
is  of  the  first  importance  that  American  schools  and 
colleges  should  teach  French,  teach  it  practically  and 
in  the  spirit  and  for  the  purpose  that  have  just  been 
described.  The  teaching  of  Spanish,  of  Italian,  and 
of  German  will  naturally  be  for  similar  purposes  and 
on  similar  lines. 

For  nearly  a  generation  past  American  education 
has  laid  the  greatest  emphasis  upon  the  study  of  the 
English  language  and  literature,  and  this  is  as  it  should 
be.  In  one  important  respect,  however,  damage  has 
been  and  is  being  done,  and  again  the  cause  is  to  be 
found  in  a  wrong  method  of  teaching.  The  idea  is 
prevalent  that  the  best  way  to  improve  the  written 
English  of  students  is  to  compel  them  to  write  con- 
stantly and  on  all  sorts  of  topics.  This  is  a  fallacy. 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  383 

The  inventor  of  the  daily  theme  did  an  almost  incal- 
culable amount  of  damage  when  he  started  a  move- 
ment that  rapidly  spread  all  over  the  United  States. 
The  one  best  way  in  which  to  teach  students  to  write 
good  English  is  to  teach  them  to  read  good  English. 
He  who  constantly  reads  the  best  English  and  also  the 
best  French,  the  best  Latin,  and  the  best  Greek,  and 
who  writes  occasionally  and  when  he  has  something 
to  say,  will  have  a  far  better  written  style  than  he  who 
pours  out  a  few  hundred  words  five  times  a  week  on 
diverse  topics  as  to  most  of  which  he  has  no  knowl- 
edge and  little  interest.  The  waste  of  time  through 
excessive  devotion  to  English  composition  is  very  great 
and  is  not  likely  to  be  patiently  borne  much  longer. 
The  daily  writing  is  obnoxious  to  the  student  and  the 
inspection  and  correction  of  their  work  is  drudgery 
for  the  teacher  uncompensated  by  any  adequate  re- 
sult. That  those  who  write  daily  themes  and  whose 
written  work  is  carefully  corrected,  make  technical 
improvements  in  their  written  style  goes  without  say- 
ing, but  the  fact  remains  that  the  method  is  a  waste- 
ful and  inefficient  one  and  that  the  path  to  good 
writing  leads  through  good  reading.  If  there  is  to 
be  such  a  thing  as  good  reading,  proposals  such  as 
that  the  English  of  the  Bible  should  be  turned  into 
what  is  called  the  vernacular  must  be  given  short 
shrift.  To  hear  the  English  of  the  Bible  spoken  of 
as  "a  beautiful  and  unfamiliar  dialect  which  was  spoken 
three  centuries  ago,"  because  it  happens  to  be  beyond 
the  immediate  comprehension  of  some  ignoramus  who 


384  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

reads  a  writer  or  a  book  called  Nick  Carter  and  the 
newspapers,  is  sufficient  to  upset  the  equanimity  of 
a  saint.  We  shall  probably  next  be  told  that  it  is 
found  desirable  to  supply  the  plays  of  Shakespeare 
with  descriptive  and  enticing  headlines  after  the  fash- 
ion of  the  last  editions  of  the  metropolitan  evening 
papers.  There  would  appear  to  be  no  limit  to  human 
folly. 

There  has  been  for  some  time  past  a  considerable 
amount  of  time  and  energy  devoted  to  the  study  of 
government  and  politics  in  secondary  schools  and  col- 
leges. Unfortunately,  however,  most  of  this  time  and 
energy  have  been  given  over  to  the  study  of  the  ma- 
chinery and  the  details  of  government  rather  than  to 
a  comprehension  of  the  principles  upon  which  good 
government  and  republican  institutions  rest.  The 
responsibilities  of  citizenship  increase  day  by  day  and 
have  been  multiplied  by  the  effects  and  results  of  the 
war.  There  is  double  need,  therefore,  of  training  the 
youth  of  to-day  who  are  to  be  the  men  and  women  of 
to-morrow  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  good  citi- 
zenship and  in  a  knowledge  of  those  rights,  duties, 
and  opportunities,  national  and  international,  which 
constitute  the  elements  of  the  world's  organized  life. 
How  many  members  of  Congress  there  may  be,  what 
their  terms  and  what  their  compensation,  are  facts  of 
slight  importance  compared  with  an  understanding 
of  the  reasons  for  the  existence  of  a  Congress,  of  its 
powers  and  duties,  and  of  the  ways  in  which  and  the 
purposes  for  which  its  functions  have  been  fulfilled 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  385 

for  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  As  has  already  been 
suggested,  a  true  theory  of  politics  will  supplement 
and  unite  a  good  understanding  of  both  ethics  and 
economics. 

The  swing  of  the  pendulum  away  from  interest  in 
the  ancient  classics  has  plainly  come  to  its  end.  There 
are  many  signs  that  a  deeper  insight  and  a  wider 
sympathy  are  manifesting  themselves,  and  that  during 
the  next  generation  the  classical  languages  and  litera- 
tures will  be  more  earnestly  pursued  and  better  taught 
than  they  have  been  in  the  recent  past.  It  is  not 
practicable  to  use  the  classics  directly  in  any  plan  of 
wide-spread  popular  elementary  and  secondary  edu- 
cation, but  it  is  entirely  practicable  for  that  education 
to  be  carried  on  with  full  appreciation  of  the  importance 
of  the  classics  and  with  full  understanding  of  the 
lessons  which  they  teach  and  of  the  standards  which 
they  set  up.  The  classics  remain  the  unexhausted 
and  inexhaustible  fountains  of  excellence  in  all  that 
pertains  to  letters,  to  art,  and  to  the  intellectual  life. 
The  secondary  schools  and  the  colleges  must  make 
adequate  provision  for  their  study  and  their  proper 
teaching.  Those  in  whose  keeping  the  classics  are 
placed  must  fix  their  minds  much  more  on  matters  of 
human  interest,  human  conduct,  and  human  feeling, 
and  much  less  on  matters  of  technical  linguistic  ac- 
curacy and  skill. 

It  is  worth  remembering  that  the  educational  ideals 
of  modern  France  are  drawn  from  the  classical  tradi- 
tion and  are  shaped  under  classical  influence,  and  that 


386  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

the  French  are  probably  the  best-educated  people  in 
the  world.  Only  recently  the  French  minister  of 
public  instruction  and  of  fine  arts  told  in  a  public 
address  an  anecdote  of  a  student  in  the  University  of 
Montpellier,  who  overheard  one  evening  in  the  trenches 
the  conversation  of  his  men:  "I,"  said  one,  "am 
fighting  for  my  fields  of  grain;"  "I,"  said  another, 
"am  fighting  for  my  wife  and  children;"  and  "I," 
said  the  third,  "am  fighting  for  my  mountains." 
Then  the  young  officer  said  gravely,  "I  am  fighting 
for  La  Fontaine  and  Moliere;  La  Fontaine  the  immortal 
heir  of  flLsop  and  of  Phaedrus;  Moliere  the  immortal 
heir  of  Plautus  and  of  Terence,  and  still  farther  of 
Aristophanes  and  of  Menander."  This  young  lieu- 
tenant knew  well  both  how  to  live  and  how  to  die, 
for  the  beauty  of  the  world  and  of  man's  achievement 
in  it  had  seized  hold  of  his  soul. 

In  an  industrial  age  like  that  in  which  we  are  living 
and  are  likely  to  continue  to  live,  it  is  little  short  of 
monstrous  that  there  is  so  slight  a  direct  relationship 
between  formal  education  and  industry.  Fully  thirty 
years  ago  a  well-organized  and  clearly  defined  move- 
ment was  undertaken  in  the  United  States  to  bring  the 
fundamental  and  elementary  industrial  processes  into 
use  as  general  educational  instrumentalities.  Largely 
as  a  result  of  the  Russian  exhibit  at  the  Centennial 
Exposition  of  1876  in  Philadelphia  and  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1878,  the  attention  of  American  teachers 
was  drawn  to  a  practical  method  of  using  the  elementary 
principles  of  the  mechanical  arts  as  subjects  of  school 


EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR  387 

instruction  and  training.  Sound  physiological,  psy- 
chological, and  economic  arguments  were  urged  for 
this  step  and  some  headway  was  made  toward  accom- 
plishing the  end  which  the  reformers  of  that  day  had 
in  view.  Despite  some  distinct  successes  here  and 
there  and  despite  the  soundness  of  the  principles  on 
which  the  movement  was  based,  it  failed  to  establish 
itself  generally  for  a  variety  of  reasons  which  need  not 
here  be  detailed.  For  one  thing,  the  movement  was 
somewhat  in  advance  of  the  public  opinion  of  the 
moment  and  to  be  in  advance  of  public  opinion  is 
quite  as  fatal  to  any  new  departure  as  to  be  behind 
public  opinion.  There  is  every  reason  now  why  this 
subject  should  be  taken  up  anew  and  why  those  gen- 
eral educational  instrumentalities  that  have  done  such 
yeoman's  work  for  generations  should  be  supplemented 
by  new  instrumentalities  designed  particularly  to  train 
the  hand,  the  eye,  the  power  of  co-ordinating  the  two, 
and  the  constructive  capacity  of  youth  in  ways  that 
will  eventually  add  to  the  economic  usefulness  of  the 
individual  and  to  the  economic  advantage  of  the 
community.  It  is  specially  important,  by  linking 
handwork  with  capacity,  artistry,  and  understanding, 
to  restore  that  joy  in  the  job  with  its  resulting  satis- 
factions both  individual  and  social  which  mass-work 
and  highly  specialized  industry  have  combined  as 
largely  to  destroy.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  impor- 
tance of  education  to  creative  industry  and  the  impor- 
tance of  creative  industry  to  education  will  longer  be 
disregarded. 


388  EDUCATION  AFTER  TEE  WAR 

On  the  other  hand,  the  elementary  school  must  be 
brought  back  to  its  proper  business,  neglect  of  which 
has  been  general  and  much  remarked  for  years  past. 
The  elementary  school,  being  well  organized  and  uni- 
versal, has  been  seized  upon  by  faddists  and  enthu- 
siasts of  every  type  as  an  instrumentality  not  for 
better  education  but  for  accomplishing  their  own 
particular  ends.  The  simple  business  of  training  young 
children  in  good  habits  of  exercise  and  in  good  habits 
of  conduct,  of  teaching  them  the  elementary  facts  of 
the  nature  which  surrounds  them,  and  of  giving 
them  ability  to  read  understandingly,  to  write  legibly, 
and  to  perform  quickly  and  with  accuracy  the  funda- 
mental operations  with  numbers,  has  been  rudely 
pushed  into  the  background  by  all  sorts  of  enterprises 
from  lectures  on  the  alleged  evil  effects  of  alcohol  and 
tobacco  to  the  sale  of  War  Savings  Stamps.  It  may 
be  necessary  one  of  these  days  to  organize  a  society 
for  the  protection  of  the  elementary  school  in  order 
that  that  indispensable  institution  may  have  an  op- 
portunity to  mind  its  own  proper  business. 

Vigorous  steps  must  be  taken  promptly  to  make  the 
teaching  profession  more  attractive  to  men  of  high 
competence  and  ambition.  While  administrative  offi- 
cers are  still  frequently  more  or  less  dependent  upon 
political  or  other  conditions  which  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  influence  educational  organization  and  work, 
teachers  as  a  body,  whether  in  school  or  in  college, 
are  so  secure  in  their  tenure  as  to  constitute  a  highly 
privileged  class.  The  politician  and  the  intriguer 


EDUCATION  AFTER  TH£  WAR  389 

must  be  taught  not  to  concern  himself  with  the  office 
of  superintendent  of  schools  or  with  the  organization 
and  direction  of  educational  work.  Mere  security  of 
tenure  does  not,  however,  attract  the  highest  type  of 
person  to  any  branch  of  public  service.  What  must 
be  added  to  a  tenure  whose  security  is  absolute  so  long 
as  competence  accompanies  it,  is  opportunity  for  indi- 
vidual initiative  and  enterprise  and  an  adequate  wage. 
Not  only  must  the  wages  of  teachers  be  very  greatly 
increased,  but  the  prizes  of  the  profession,  those  con- 
spicuous, influential,  and  well-paid  posts  that  are  freely 
open  to  talent,  must  be  multiplied  both  in  number  and 
in  importance.  The  ambitious  and  high-spirited  man 
will  be  drawn  to  education  as  a  career,  and  held  in  it, 
so  soon  as  he  finds  that  it  offers  him  an  opportunity 
for  reputation  and  for  usefulness  that  is  commensurate 
with  his  ambition  and  his  capacity. 

By  the  mere  force  of  inertia  there  will  be  a  tendency 
for  schoolmasters  to  lapse  back  into  old  habits,  old 
routine,  and  old  methods  when  the  present  emotional 
stimulus  is  withdrawn.  In  the  name  and  in  the  hope 
of  true  progress  and  of  learning  the  lessons  of  experi- 
ence, this  tendency  must  be  avoided  and  combated. 
The  new  world  into  which  we  are  so  rapidly  moving 
will  be  built  upon  the  old  world  which  it  displaces, 
and  it  will  gather  into  itself  all  of  the  lessons  of  that 
old  world's  experience  while  resolutely  throwing  away 
its  dross.  Unless  all  signs  fail  it  will  be  a  world  of 
vigorous  individual  activity,  of  large  opportunity  for 


390  EDUCATION  AFTER  THE  WAR 

initiative  and  accomplishment,  and  of  constantly  in- 
creasing co-operation  for  high  purposes  between  indi- 
viduals, between  groups,  and  between  nations.  After 
all  that  may  be  said  in  sharp  criticism  of  American 
school  and  college  education  in  the  past  two  decades, 
it  remains  true  that  the  American  people,  and  par- 
ticularly the  American  soldiers,  have  shown  themselves 
capable  of  the  most  striking  accomplishments  in  the 
shortest  time  through  the  possession  of  almost  un- 
equalled initiative,  resourcefulness,  and  zeal  for  ser- 
vice. What  may  not  be  expected  of  such  a  people, 
and,  if  the  need  ever  come  again,  of  such  soldiers,  if 
their  theory  and  practice  of  education  are  all  that  they 
should  be  ?  One's  imagination  hesitates  to  attempt 
to  measure  the  capacity  of  one  hundred  millions  of 
thoroughly  well-educated,  well-trained,  and  well-dis- 
ciplined American  men  and  women.  Yet  nothing 
short  of  this  should  be  the  aim  of  American  educational 
policy.  That  policy  as  it  steadily  advances  to  newer 
and  higher  levels  of  ambition  and  accomplishment 
must  not  fall  a  victim  to  the  temptations  of  that  ego- 
tism which  regards  the  affairs  of  the  passing  moment 
as  of  such  importance  to  the  world's  history  and  of 
such  significance  for  the  world's  future  as  to  justify 
contempt  for  all  that  has  gone  before.  That  policy 
will  succeed  if  it  remains  steadfast  in  its  republican 
faith  and  if  it  continues  to  prefer  the  solid  foundations 
and  noble  ideals  of  the  American  republic  to  the 
crude  and  undemocratic  devices  that  are  urged  in 
its  stead. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Academic  freedom,  351-352 

Acton,  Lord,  271-273,  337 

Adamson  law,  232 

.-Esop,  386 

Agriculture,  15-16,  54-56,  106-107 

Alexander  the  Great,  118 

Alfred  the  Great,  326 

Alliances,  46,  126 

Aloofness  impossible,  143-140 

Alsace-Lorraine,  134 

America,  economic  condition,  15-16; 
and  the  war,  45;  cost  of  living,  m- 
112;  co-operation,  125;  and  the 
League  of  Nations,  136-137;  view  on 
the  peace  problem,  140-141;  united, 
193;  debt  to  Lincoln,  215-217;  foreign 
policy,  235-240;  and  England,  340; 
higher  education,  343-353 

American  principles  as  objects  of  educa- 
tion, xii;  Revolution,  5,  141;  Insti- 
tute of  International  Law,  129;  soldiers 
in  Russia,  204 

Anarchy,  oo,  165-166 

Anderson,  Martin  B.,  358 

Angell,  James  B.,  358 

Angelo,  Michael,  376 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  270 

Architecture  schools,  350 

Aristophanes,  370,  386 

Aristotle,  206,  376;  and  Hamilton,  288, 
29 1 

Armaments,  reduction  of,  46,  126 

Armenia,  31,  33 

Army  of  Faith  in  the  republic,  360-365 

Arthur,  Chester  A.,  188 

Asquith,  47,  121,  127 

Assizes,  261 

Augustine,  St.,  361-362 

Austria-Hungary,  118,  121,  128,  138 

Backward  peoples,  exploitation  of,  237- 

238 

Bacon,  Roger,  269 
Bakunin,  17 
Ballot,  short,  177 
Barnard,  F.  A.  P.,  358 
Be'mont,  257 
Berchtold,  78 
Bethmann-Hollweg,  78 
Bible,  383 


Bill  drafting,  174-175 

Bismarck,  31,  327 

Blackstone,  261 

Elaine,  James  G.,  176 

Bolingbroke,  265 

Bologna  University,  269 

Bolshevism,  17,  31,  33-34,  30-40,  204- 
206,  209,  217 

Boston,  police  strike,  91-92,  230;  food- 
supply,  1 06 

Bracton,  261 

Briand,  121 

Bright,  John,  44 

Bryan,  William  Jennings,  153 

Budget,  64-66,  179,  243-244 

Burgess,  169-170 

Burghley,  326 

Burke,  Edmund,  257-258,  261,  266,  326 

Burns,  Robert,  15 

Burr,  Aaron,  300-301 

Cabinet,  attendance  at  legislative  ses- 
sions, 60-64,  175-176 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  310 

Canning,  326 

Cantonments,  52 

Capital,  21-22;  and  labor,  74-76,  81, 
244 

Care  of  aged,  disabled,  etc.,  38-30 

Centennial  Exposition,  Philadelphia,  386 

Central  Powers,  terms  of  peace,  202 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  Utica,  address, 
28;  St.  Louis,  address,  116;  State  of 
New  York,  address,  316 

Charlemagne,  3,  118 

Charles  Stuart,  Pretender,  271 

Chatham,  268,  326 

Chatterton,  292 

China,  190 

Chisholm  v.  Georgia,  159 

Citizenship,  50-51,  384-385 

Civil  War,  54,  139,  141 

Civilization,  74 

Class  distinctions,  xi,  68-69,  231 

Classics,  educational  value,  345-348, 
381-386 

Clay,  Henry,  226,  249 

Cleveland,  Grover,  113 

Clinton,  George,  295 

Coal  industry,  112 


393 


394 


INDEX 


Coke,  260-261 

Collective  bargaining,  37,  75 

College,  professors,  351-352;  presidents, 
358 

Colleges  and  the  nation,  355-365 

Colonization,  238 

Commercial  Club,  Cincinnati,  address, 
2;  St.  Louis,  address,  42;  San  Fran- 
cisco, address,  96;  Chicago,  address, 
152 

Commission  on  economy  and  efficiency, 
report,  66 

Communism,  xi 

Compulsory  training,  50-53 

Congress,  177;  budget  system,  64-66 

Congress  of  Vienna,  134 

Constitution,  x,  6-7,  18,  24,  32,  69,  87, 
126,  156-171,  229,  305-308;  of  Ohio, 
x;  of  New  York  State,  264,  268-269, 
273-274;  making  of  a  written,  277; 
of  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  281- 
282;  and  Hamilton,  295-296 

Constitutional  Convention,  Massa- 
chusetts, August  23,  1917,  278;  of 
Russia,  280 

Consultation,  360 

Conventions,  political,  173-174 

Cooper,  Myles,  290 

Co-operation,  industrial,  22,  36-37,  40, 
59,82-88,210,233;  international,  48- 
49,  119-122,  125-127, 137,  239;  legis- 
lative and  executive,  64,  282-283; 
government  and  business,  246;  social, 
267;  Roman  Catholic  Church,  360; 
in  education,  300 

Corner-stone  of  American  life,  6-8 

Corporations,  22 

Cost  of  living,  76,  97,  241-243 

Country  life,  54 

Credit,  101-104,  242 

Cromwell,  326 

Crusades,  254 

Cuba,  238 

Currency  inflation,  101-103,  24* 

Czecho-Slovakia,  31,  33, 133 

Dante,  270 

Danton,  266 

Declaration  of  Independence,  is,  24,  69, 
268 

Demand  for  leadership,  199 

Demobilization,  52 

Democracy,  8-9, 15, 17,  59, 93, 191-192, 
279 

Democrat  administration,  1912—1920, 
149,  231-236;  peace  terms,  121;  de- 
mand for  a  vote  of  confidence,  198; 
diplomatic  appointments,  206-207; 
cost  of  living,  242 

Democrat  Party,  19,  198-199,  208,  225- 
226,  231-236,  242,  247-248 


Deposits  in  banks,  stock,  etc.,  15 

Development  of  the  Republican  Party, 
225-228 

Domestic  problems,  207,  240-247 

Dunning,  260 

Duty  of  speaking  plainly,  203;  and  op- 
portunity of  this  Republican  Party, 
231-233 

Ecole  des  beaux  arts,  350 

Economic  changes,  34-36;  laws,  no- 
112;  independence,  233-235 

Economics,  376-378;  writers  on,  81 

Education,  16;  in  American  principles, 
xii;  compulsory,  39;  higher,  343-353, 
358;  after  the  war,  367-300;  France, 
385-386;  and  industry,  386-387; 
elementary,  388;  and  politics,  388- 
389 

Efficiency,  60,  373-374 

Edward  the  Confessor,  257,  326 

Edward  I,  259,  326 

Election  of  senators,  158;  of  public  offi- 
cers, 171-174 

Elementary  education,  388 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  358 

Engineering  schools,  350 

England.    See  Great  Britain 

English  language,  and  national  unity, 
67-68;  educational  value,  382-384 

Ententes,  46,  126 

Equality,  8-9,  14-15 

Essays  and  reviews,  339 

Ethics,  376-378 

European  War,  43,  45-50,  97-98,  185- 
186;  production,  60;  road  to  durable 
peace,  115-122;  and  America,  199- 
200;  and  Roosevelt,  320;  Great 
Britain's  part  in,  323-330;  and  faith, 

333-341 

Excess  profit  tax,  107 
Executive  and  legislative,  64,  282-283 
Exploitation  of  backward  peoples,  237- 

238 
Extension  teaching,  348-349 

Factory  system,  34-35 

Faith  and  the  war,  331-341;  in  the  Re- 
public, 360-365 

False  assumptions  of  socialism,  11-17 

Fanning.    See  Agriculture. 

Favored-nation  clause,  47,  126 

Federal,  reserve  banking  system,  213; 
Transportation  board,  213-214;  Trade 
board,  215;  Constitutional  conven- 
tion, 280 

Federalist,  x,  288,  295 

Feudalism,  270-271 

Fitzpatrick,  78-79 

Fitz  Walter,  Robert,  253 

Foch,  Ferdinand,  97 


INDEX 


395 


Food-supply,  105-106 

Foreign  policy,  American,  238-240; 
languages,  teaching,  381-383 

Foresight,  43 

Foster,  78-79 

Fox,  326 

France,  cost  of  living,  111-112;  co- 
operation, 125;  individual  liberty,  161 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  103,  326 

Freedom  of  the  seas,  133,  130-140 

French,  best  educated  people  in  the 
world,  385-386 

French  language,  teaching,  381-384 

Garfield,  James,  176,  301 

Geology  of  politics,  265-266 

German  language,  teaching,  381-382 

Germany,  21, 118-122;  nation-building, 
31-32;  League  of  Nations,  128,  138;- 
140;  individual  liberty,  161;  consti- 
tution, 305;  imperialism,  338;  educa- 
tion, 374 

Gibbon,  376 

Gilman,  Daniel  C.,  358 

Gladstone,  181,  326,  359-360 

Glanvil,  261 

Gneist,  262 

Government  ownership,  57;  supervision 
of  big  business,  246;  and  the  railroads, 
247;  study  of,  384-385 

Grant,  198 

Great  Britain,  industrial  problem,  74; 
cost  of  living,  1 1  i-i  1 2 ;  and  Germany, 
118;  co-operation,  125-126;  imperial- 
ism, 134;  making  of  laws,  161-162; 
world's  debt  to,  323-329;  and  America 
340 

Greece,  31,  134 

Greek  language,  345-348,  381-386 

Green,  John  Richard,  253 

Hague   conferences,   46-48,    126,  139, 

146 

Hallam,  262 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  225-226,  229,  249, 

266,  285-313,  326 
Hampden,  326 
Handwork,  75,  387 
Hanson,  Ole,  205 
Hapsburgs,  232 
Harper,  William  R.,  358 
Hayne,  311 
Henderson,  170 
Henry  I,  257,  260 
Henry  n,  326 
Henry  HI,  259 

High  cost  of  living,  76,  97,  241-243 
Higher  education,  343-353,  358 
Hippocrates,  370 

History,  educational  value,  346-347 
HohenzoUerns,  31,  232 


Home  problems,  207,  240-247;  rule  for 

Ireland,  134 
Homer,  333 

Homes,  ownership  of,  15 
Homestead  Act,  54 
Hopkins,  Mark,  358 
Hours  of  labor,  105 
House  of  Commons,  176 
House  of  Representatives,  attendance 

of  Cabinet  members,  60-64 
Huerta,  205 
Hungary,  106-107 
Huxley,  381 

I.  W.  W.,  90,  135,  209 

Idealism,  336-337 

Imperialism,  German,  338 

Income  tax,  107,  158 

Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia,  4 

Individual  differences,  educational  pro- 
vision for,  378-379 

Industrial  co-operation,  22,  36^-37,  40, 
59,  82-88,  210,  233;  revolution,  34- 
36,  77-80,  90-94;  problem,  35-38,  59, 
73,  232-233;  conditions,  105,  209- 
210;  democracy,  210;  war,  244-246; 
Relations  Commission,  245;  hand- 
work, 75,  387 

Industry  and  education,  386-387 

Innocent  HI,  pope,  258-259 

Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  address, 
72 

Institutionalism,  165-169 

Institutions,  267 

International  co-operation.  See  Co- 
operation 

International  relations,  45-50;  235-238; 
Court  of  Justice,  47-48, 126-127,  236- 
237,  239 

Internationalism,  10-21,  48,  135-137 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  211, 
213 

Investments,  103 

Italian  language,  teaching,  382 

Italy,  74;  co-operation,  125 

Jackson,  Andrew,  310-311 

Jay,  John,  226,  249,  296 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  5,  225-226,  310,  326 

Jenks,  Fxlward,  259 

John,  King  of  England,  255-259 

Johnson,  Samuel,  369 

Jones,  John  Paul,  335 

Judicial  committee  of  theJPrivy  Council, 

126;  procedure,  179 
Jugoslavia,  31,  33,  134 

Kent,  James,  26r,  295-301 
King's  College,  290 

Labor.    See  under  Industrial,  etc. 
Labor  Party,  168 


396 


INDEX 


La  Fontaine,  386 

Land,  15-16,  53-56,  106-107 

Lang,  Cosmo  Gordon,  Archbishop  of 
York,  325,  333,  340 

Language,  national  unity,  67-68;  teach- 
ing, 381-383 

Latin  language,  345-348,  381-386 

Law  schools,  350 

Leadership,  demand  for,  109 

League  of  Nations,  46,  49, 125, 133-139, 
145-149,  236 

Lenine,  13,  21,  135,  205,  230 

Liberal,  4 

Liberal  Party,  181,  228 

Liberty,  6-10,  17-18,  22-23,  3O-33,  230, 
271-275,  281,  305-307,  325-329,  362- 
363;  property  an  element  of,  xi 

Liberum  veto,  88 

Libraries,  16 

Liebknecht,  135 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  215-217,  221,  227, 
229,  249,  273,  301,  312,  326;  Gettys- 
burg address  and  Second  Inaugural,  x; 
address  at  Lincoln  Day  banquet,  195, 

Littleton,  261 

Livingston,  Edward,  296,  310 

Long,  John  D.,  176 

Louisiana  Purchase,  226 

Louis  Capet,  271 

Louis  IX,  270 

Lowe,  Robert,  181 

Loyalty,  89-90,  93 

Lusitania,  139 

McCosh,  James,  358 

McKinley,  145,  148,  188,  235,  238,  301 

Madison,  James,  229 

Magna  Carta,  251 

Maitland,  264 

Markets,  56 

Marne,  Battle  of  the,  120 

Marshall,  John,  226,  229,  249,  299,  310, 

326 

Marx,  Karl,  13-14,  16 
Mason,  John  Mitchell,  301-304 
Massachusetts,  police  strike,  91-92,  230 
Mathematics,  educational  value,  345-348 
Medical  schools,  350 
Medicine,  preventive,  378 
Melbourne,  Lord,  369 
Menander,  386 
Mercantile  marine,  58 
Metternich,  134,  327 
Mexico,  land  ownership,  55 
Milton,  326 
Moliere,  386 

Monroe  doctrine,  146-147 
Montague,  20 
Montfort,  Simon  de,  326 
Most-favored-nation  clause,  47,  126 
Mozart,  292 


Napoleon,  118,  215^ 

Nation-building,  30-33,  51,  98, 138,  285, 

293-298,  308,  312 
National  training  for  national  service, 

50-53;  budget,  64-66,  243-244;  unity, 

66-69;  Assembly  of  France,  280 
Nationalism,  20 
Nationality,  133 
Natural  sciences,  379-381 
Neutral  nations,  138 
New  Amsterdam,  334 
New  Jersey,  177 
New  York  (City),  333-334;  food-supply, 

106 
New  York  (State),  constitution,   264, 

268-269 
Nichols,  Governor,  334 

Ohio,  constitution,  x 
Oxford  University,  269 

Paris  University,  269;  Exposition,  386 

Parties  in  politics,  167-168 

Patriotism,  19-20 

Pendleton,  George  H.,  176 

Petit-Dutaillis,  259 

Pha:drus,  386 

Philadelphia,  food-supply,  106 

Philosophy,  educational  value,  347 

Pichon,  204 

Peace,  29,  45,  60, 117;  Conference,  133, 
146,  202-203;  and  after-peace,  195; 
settlement,  200;  celebration  of,  334 

Pilgrims  Society,  323-325 

Pius  IX,  359-360 

Plain  speaking,  duty  of,  203 

Plato,  266 

Plautus,  386 

Poland,  31,  33,  88,  134 

Police  strike,  91-92,  230 

Political  conventions,  173-174;  parties, 
222,  224-225;  and  economical  inde- 
pendence, 233-235 

Politics,  153,376-378;  defined,  222-224; 
geology  of,  265-267;  study  of,  384- 
385;  and  education,  388-389 

Pollock,  Sir  Frederick,  264 

Prediction,  43 

Present  crisis,  228-231 

President,  budget  system,  65-66 

Presidential  campaign,  1916,  nomina- 
tion of  Elihu  Root,  185;  campaign  of 
1920,  199 

Preventive  medicine,  378 

Prices,  76 

Primaries,  171,  173 

Principle    of    self-determination,    133- 

134 

Privy  Council,  Judicial  committee,  126 
Problem  of  transportation,  56-58 
Problems  at  home,  207,  240-247 


INDEX 


397 


Production,  36-38,  50-60,  83,  104-106, 

210,  242-243 
Public  security  and  public  order,  33-34; 

satisfaction,  38-39 
Pulling  some  men  down  raises  no  man 

up,  8-10 
Profit,  84 

Profiteering,  109-110 
Progress,  constructive,  43 
Progressive,  24 
Propaganda,  91 

Property,  an  element  of  liberty,  xi 
Prosperity,  29 
Provisions,  law,  261 
Prussian  militarism,  o-io 
Psychology,  German,  372 
Public    debt,    103-104;     health,    378; 

opinion,  387 
Pym,  326 

Race  riots,  241 

Railroads,  16;  government  control,  56- 
58,  88,  210-215,  247 

Reactionary,  23 

Reading,  383-384 

Recall  of  judges,  157 

Republican  form  of  government,  36,  39; 
State  convention,  145;  National  con- 
vention, Chicago,  1916,  address,  184 

Republican  party,  19, 145, 185-187,  217, 

,  219-250;  problems  of  1920,  197-198; 
and  internationalism,  201;  loyalty, 
203;  government  control  of  railroads, 
213;  development  of,  225-228;  duty 
and  opportunity,  231-233 

Research,  351 

Revolution,  American.  See  American 
Revolution. 

Revolutions,  30, 32 

Rights  of  man,  x 

Rockingham,  Marquis  of,  268 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  359-360 

Romanoffs,  205,  232 

Rome,  118 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  113, 146, 148, 153, 
227,  238,  249,  315-322 

Root,  Efihu,  183-194 

Rumania,  106-107 

Runnymede,  253 

Russell,  20 

Russia,  13-14,  31,  33-34,  118,  206;  land 
ownership,  55;  food  exports,  106-107; 
exhibits  at  the  Centennial  and  Paris 
Expositions,  386 

St.  Lawrence  University,  356-365 

Salaries,  75-76;  of  teachers,  389 

San  Domingo,  238 

Saying,  103 

Science  teaching,  379-381 

Seas,  freedom  of  the,  139-140 


Secret  understandings,  47-48,  127 

Self-determination,  133-134 

Senate,  attendance  of  Cabinet  members, 
60-64 

Senators,  election  of,  158 

Serbia,  118 

Shakespeare,  376,  384 

Shaw,  Bernard,  369 

Shelley,  328 

Sherman  Act,  212 

Shipbuilding,  58 

Short  ballot,  177 

Slesvig,  134 

SmUlie,  79 

Social  service,  xi;  reform  not  socialism, 
lo-n;  advance,  58^-60;  educational 
value  of  social  questions,  346 

Socialism,  6,  10-25,  4°»  *35>  208 

Socrates,  370 

Sovereignty  of  the  people,  161-164 

Spanish  language,  teaching,  382 

Spargo,  20 

Speaking  plainly,  duty  of,  203 

State,  the,  86-87,  89,  156,  164,  173 

Stanton,  229 

Statutes,  261 

Steel  strike,  78;  industry,  82 

Strikes,  78,  87-88,  91-93,  245-246 

Stuart,  Charles,  Pretender,  271 

Stubbs,  William,  255-256,  259 

Submarines,  140 

Suffrage,  68 

Summer  Session,  348 

Supreme  Court,  18,  126 

Swift,  Jonathan,  369 

Switzerland,  trained  soldiery,  51 

Sykes,  Eddy,  356 

Tacitus,  338 

Taft,  William  H.,  146,  176,  179,  235 

Talleyrand,  134,  298 

Tappan,  Henry  P.,  358 

Taxation,  107-109,  179 

Teaching  profession,  should  be  made 
more  attractive,  388—389 

Temple,  Frederick,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 339 

Terence,  386 

Text-books,  sciences,  379 

Theme-writing,  382-383 

Thomas,  79 

Training  for  social  service,  xi;  for  na- 
tional service,  50-53;  schools,  naval, 
58 

Transportation,  56-60,  210-215,  247 

Treaties,  127 

Trentino,  134 

Trevelyan,  227 

Trotzky,  13,  21,  135,  205,  230 

Turkey,  31 

Tyndall,  381 


398 


INDEX 


Union  League  Club,  221 
United  States.    See  America 
Unity,  national,  66-69 
Unpreparedness  for  war,  50 
Unrest,  the  world  in  a  state  of,  30 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  318 

Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Schuyler,  334 

Versailles  Treaty,  236 

Vienna  Congress,  134 

Vinogradoff,  270 

Vocational  training,  51-53,  349-350 

Voltaire,  265 

Wages  of  teachers,  389 

Walling,  20 

Washington,  George,  229,  249,  309,  326; 
farewell  address,  x;  party  politics, 
223-226;  and  Hamilton,  292 

Way  to  form  a  league  of  nations,  137-139 


Wayland,  Francis,  358 

Webster,  Daniel,  226,  229,  249,  266,  291, 
311-312,  326 

Wells,  H.  G.,  369 

What  knowledge  is  of  most  worth,  374- 
375 

White,  Andrew  D.,  358 

William  of  Hohenzollern,  205 

Winning  of  liberty,  32-33 

Witenagemot,  253 

Witherspoon,  289 

Woman  suffrage,  228 

World  in  a  state  of  unrest,  30;  domina- 
tion, 118-122;  debt  to  England,  323- 
329 

Wyclif,  John,  326 

Yellowstone  National  Park,  73 
York,  Cosmo  Gordon  Lang,  Archbishop 
of,  325,  333i  340 


• 


Date  Due 


HAY  2   m 

MAR     9 

1963 

lv.*K  2  7 

1963 

Library  Bureau 
UC 

Ul 

Cat.   No.  1137 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

A     001  009  713     7 


